It was two days after the International Day of Peace, only one day after President Barack Obama called for a resumption of meetings between the heads of state in Israel and Palestine to bring peace to the region.

The students at Eagle View Elementary continued in the same spirit of promoting peace and harmony in their own way on Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 23, when Eagle View’s art specialists Wendy Pierce and Jessica Chinn took their sixth grade students out in front of the school to express themselves.

As part of Chalk 4 Peace week Sept. 21-25, students crowded the sidewalk in front of the school armed with chalk and brimming with creative ideas about the concept of peace. Their task was to illustrate what peace means to them.

“Today, we have our sixth graders out here, but this has been going on all week,” said Chinn. “This is our first time doing this. Ms. Pierce is actually the one who introduced it to me.”

Pierce, a new addition to Eagle View, said she thought it would be good for the school to get involved with Chalk 4 Peace, based off her prior experience at another school.

“When I came here, I thought that it would be a great thing to do because this is a new school, so this is a great community-building activity,” said Pierce. “They have to share the chalk with each other. They work on their drawings together and nobody’s left-out.”

One of the more intricate displays featured a colorful music staff twirling upward. It was drawn by three young artists: Andria Yoon, Anushka Dhyani and Zerrnisha Khan.

“We worked on this music staff together because we all like music and it symbolizes peace,” Andria said. “I tried to draw a piano, at first, but it was too complicated.”

Another creative display was done by Munie Sultan who constructed a dove flying through a peace sign to symbolize how she feels.

“Peace means harmony, and everyone should know about peace.” Munie said.

Pierce and Chinn observed each student’s progress, making sure they were contributing their best efforts to the task at hand.

“They did a lot of things to prepare them for this,” said Chinn. “We read books and created word-art to brainstorm, and they made sketches so they would know what to draw out here.”

Two boys, Ahmed Ahmed and Gussamo Salim worked on a symbol together which entailed an eye inside a peace sign.

Next to them, Arjun Iyer drew a peace sign with fire around it.

“The fire symbolizes how strong peace is” Arjun said.

By the time the class was finished, an array of pastels covered the sidewalk and the enthusiasm in Pierce and Chinn had not yet subsided as they were preparing for their next classes.

“Kids at this age are kind of into street art and it helps them learn how to be good citizens.” said Pierce. “It’s not political or religious or anything like that. It’s a day where we can get together and think about peace and what it means to us.”

Chalk 4 Peace started four years ago when John Aaron, an art teacher from Arlington, came up with the idea and organized the first Chalk 4 Peace event at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C.