LifeSkills Handbook Activity 41
This is a single activity session plan from The Lifeskills Handbook. There are 61 activity sessions altogether. The handbook is available from our resources section where you’ll also find downloadable storybooks, books and posters to help you in your work.
LifeSkills Handbooks Activity 41
Helping to Resolve a Conflict
Purpose of activity:
To explore how to help as a go-between in a conflict.
Life Skills: Problem-solving, Creative Thinking, Empathy
Important points
It would be helpful to do Activities 39: What make me angry? and Activity 40: What happens to us when we get angry? before this activity.
Steps
- Remind the children of the discussions that they have had in Activities 43 and 44. Explain that sometimes it is hard to sort out conflict or arguments, for example when:
- All people in the argument think they are right and will not back down
- If one side is not telling the truth
- If one or other or both are VERY angry
When this is the case, someone may be needed to act as a go-between: this is someone who negotiates between people in an argument.
- Ask children to give examples of when this has happened. Discuss who helped and how teachers? friends? relatives?
- Divide children into groups of three or four and ask them to do a roleplay either around a situation known to them or an example from Activity 43 or 44. In this roleplay, the problem is not resolved so another person is called in to help. The groups have to decide who this person is.
- Children perform the roleplays and after each, the whole group comments on how this extra person helped solve the argument (for example, by calming everyone down, by suggesting a compromise or an alternative that no-one had thought of).
Final Discussion
How can a go-between help sort out an argument? Is it good to be a go-between? Why/why not? Have you ever been a go-between?