Develop Peacemaking Skills

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Dr. Judith Myers-Walls, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Purdue University, was getting ready for work and watching the morning news when she saw the tragic events of that day unfold. She had significant experience with preparing materials to help parents and other adults talk to children about media events such as those. So that morning, she sent out the paper “Talking to Children When the Talking Gets Tough” over several listservs and promised more specific pieces later that day. However, instead of continuing to send out more email messages, she created a website called Terrorism and Children. Purple Wagon is the latest iteration of the website that was born that day. Purple Wagon offers research-based information, recommendations, and activities to help children understand political violence, cope with fears and sadness when groups are in conflict, and learn how to make peace. The website provides teachers with helpful information and resources that they can use to discuss values related to current issues. The Classroom Activities and Resources section includes curriculum guides that can be used in classrooms with children and youth of various ages. The Additional Links category provides links to websites of practitioner, professional, and civic organizations that continuously launch peace actions. The site also includes a section of Resources for Military Families.

Click Here to Visit Purple Wagon Website

Click Here to Download “Talking to Children” Paper

Social Studies Civic Literacy

Google Earth Quiz Blending History and Geography

Tucked inside Google Earth is a geography quiz created in partnership with Atlas Obscura. The Natural Wonders Quiz is a multiple-choice challenge that asks students to identify special locations around the world.

Virtual Walk Through Archaeological Sites

Harvard University’s Digital Giza Project allows scholars to virtually walk through archaeological sites and examine artifacts that might otherwise be inaccessible. The Giza Project began in 2000 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with the goal of digitizing all of the archaeological documentation from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston–Harvard University expedition to Giza, Egypt (c. 1904–1947) and making that information freely available online for anyone to use.

Archive of Historical Children’s Books

The digital collection of the University of Florida’s Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature currently holds more than 6,000 books free to read online from cover to cover, allowing readers to get a sense of what adults in the UK and the US wanted children to know and believe in the 1800s.

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