The School of Play Curriculum
Primary School Foundation - Grade Two
Week Thirty Two centres on teaching students peaceful, calm, and kind responses to conflict and strong emotions. Through activities like Peace Pals and Freeze and Think, students learn that disagreements and big feelings are normal, and that pausing, breathing, and choosing kind language can help them navigate these moments with confidence. By acting out real-life scenarios, practising mindful movement, and exploring what calm feels like in their bodies, students begin to understand that they have the power to slow down, think clearly, and respond in ways that protect friendships and support emotional safety.
Creative tasks such as Conflict Cool-Down Posters and Peace Pebbles allow students to express what helps them feel calm and give kindness in tangible, personal ways. These activities nurture emotional regulation, gratitude, and empathy by encouraging students to think about their actions and the ripple effect they can have on others. Together, the week’s experiences reflect the lessons of Mercury, a planet of extremes, reminding students that balance, calm choices, and kindness are powerful tools for maintaining harmony in the classroom, at home, and beyond.
Weekly Lessons
Peace Pals
Peace Pals is a gentle and playful role-play activity where students practise using kind words to solve small disagreements. Just like Mercury’s extreme hot and cold temperatures, our feelings can sometimes be big and confusing during a conflict, but Peace Pals teaches students how to find balance through calm voices, turn-taking, and empathy. By acting out simple, familiar scenarios, students learn that even tricky moments can be handled with kindness and understanding.
Working in pairs, students explore friendly solutions such as sharing, apologising, or taking turns, building confidence as they use their words to fix the problem. Laughter, teamwork, and creativity turn each scenario into a powerful learning moment. This activity helps students realise that everyone has the ability to solve problems peacefully, and when we do, our classroom becomes a safer, kinder, more connected place for all.
Respectful Relationships
Understanding Conflict & Emotional Literacy
This activity supports students to:
- Understand what conflict is in an age-appropriate and non-threatening way.
- Recognise that disagreements are a normal part of relationships.
- Identify feelings such as frustration, disappointment, or feeling left out that can arise during conflict.
Emotional Regulation & Self-Management
Peace Pals helps students to:
- Practise staying calm when situations feel tricky or unfair.
- Pause, take turns, and think before reacting.
- Learn that calm words and actions help reduce “big feelings,” just like balancing Mercury’s hot and cold extremes.
Empathy & Perspective-Taking
Through role-play, students learn to:
- Consider how another person might be feeling in a disagreement.
- Show understanding and care when someone else is upset.
- Practise seeing both sides of a small problem before choosing a solution.
Respectful Communication (Verbal & Listening Skills)
This activity builds students’ ability to:
- Use kind, respectful language to solve problems (e.g. “Can we share?” “Let’s take turns”).
- Listen to their partner without interrupting.
- Take turns speaking and responding thoughtfully during role-play.
Problem-Solving & Conflict Resolution Skills
Peace Pals encourages students to:
- Explore simple, practical strategies for resolving everyday conflicts.
- Generate solutions such as sharing, turn-taking, apologising, or compromising.
- Understand that problems can be fixed through words rather than actions.
Positive Relationships & Cooperation
Students strengthen relationships by:
- Working collaboratively with a partner to solve a pretend disagreement.
- Building trust through cooperative role-play.
- Learning that solving problems together helps friendships grow stronger.
Respect, Fairness & Responsibility
This activity supports students to:
- Treat others fairly during disagreements.
- Take responsibility for their actions (e.g. acknowledging a mistake).
- Use respectful behaviours even when they don’t get their own way.
Belonging, Safety & Classroom Culture
Peace Pals contributes to a positive classroom environment by:
- Normalising mistakes and disagreements as part of learning.
- Creating a safe space to practise conflict resolution without judgement.
- Reinforcing that everyone deserves to feel heard, safe, and respected.
Building a Peaceful, Inclusive Community
This activity helps students understand that:
- Kind words and calm actions help maintain harmony in groups.
- Everyone has a role to play in keeping relationships positive.
- Small choices during conflict can make a big difference to how others feel.
Conflict Cool-Down Posters
Conflict Cool-Down Posters invites students to explore what helps them feel calm when emotions run high. Using creativity and self-reflection, students draw or write their own calming strategies, like taking deep breaths, finding a quiet space, or asking for help, turning their ideas into bright, personal posters. This gentle activity teaches students that feelings can be “hot” or “cold,” just like the extremes on Mercury, and that everyone has unique ways to cool down and feel steady again.
Once their posters are complete, students share their calming ideas with the group, learning new strategies from one another and building a shared toolkit for peaceful problem-solving. By displaying their posters in a Cool-Down Corner, students are reminded that they have the power to regulate their feelings and respond kindly during conflict. Conflict Cool-Down Posters helps create a calmer, more understanding classroom where students feel supported, safe, and emotionally confident.
Respectful Relationships
Understanding Conflict & Emotional Literacy
This activity supports students to:
- Recognise that conflict and strong emotions (anger, frustration, sadness) are a normal part of relationships.
- Identify how their body and emotions feel when they are upset.
- Develop language and visual understanding around emotional states and calming responses.
Emotional Regulation & Self-Management
Conflict Cool-Down Posters help students to:
- Identify personal strategies that help them calm down during or after a disagreement.
- Practise self-regulation skills such as breathing, pausing, seeking help, or finding quiet space.
- Understand that calming down helps them think more clearly and respond safely.
Empathy & Perspective-Taking
This activity encourages students to:
- Understand that everyone calms down in different ways.
- Respect that others may need different strategies during conflict.
- Build empathy by listening to classmates’ calm-down ideas and recognising shared feelings.
Respectful Communication (Verbal & Listening Skills)
Students build skills to:
- Express their feelings and needs using words, drawings, or symbols.
- Explain their calming strategies to others in a clear and respectful way.
- Listen attentively while others share personal coping strategies.
Problem-Solving & Conflict Resolution Skills
Conflict Cool-Down Posters support students to:
- Recognise that calming down is an important first step before solving a problem.
- Learn practical strategies that help move conflicts toward peaceful solutions.
- Develop a toolkit of strategies they can use when challenges arise.
Respect, Responsibility & Choice-Making
This activity helps students to:
- Take responsibility for managing their own emotions during conflict.
- Make positive choices about how they respond when feeling upset.
- Understand that choosing calm behaviours supports respectful relationships.
Belonging, Safety & Emotional Well-being
Students experience:
- A safe space to talk about big feelings without judgment.
- Reassurance that feeling upset is okay and manageable.
- Increased emotional security through shared understanding and support.
Positive Relationships & Cooperation
Conflict Cool-Down Posters strengthen relationships by:
- Encouraging supportive peer discussions about emotions and coping.
- Reducing escalation during disagreements by promoting calm strategies.
- Helping students approach others more peacefully after cooling down.
Building a Calm, Respectful Classroom Culture
This activity contributes to a positive learning environment by:
- Creating shared expectations around calming down before resolving conflict.
- Normalising emotional regulation as part of everyday classroom life.
- Providing visual reminders that support respectful behaviour and emotional safety.
Freeze and Think
Freeze and Think is a lively movement game that teaches students how to pause, breathe, and choose calm during moments of big energy. Students dance freely while the music plays, expressing their creativity through movement. But when the music stops, they freeze and practise a calming action, like taking a deep breath, hugging themselves, or stretching slowly to the sky. This playful switch from high energy to calm focus helps students understand how to steady their bodies and minds, just like Mercury teaches us to balance hot and cold feelings.
After the fun, students reflect on which calming actions helped them feel most settled and how they could use those same strategies during real moments of frustration or conflict. Freeze and Think strengthens self-regulation, emotional awareness, and intentional decision-making, all while keeping the classroom filled with laughter and movement. It’s a simple, joyful way to help students learn that they have the power to stop, breathe, and choose peace.
Respectful Relationships
Understanding Conflict & Emotional Literacy
This activity supports students to:
- Recognise that strong emotions and high energy can happen suddenly.
- Identify how their body feels during moments of excitement, frustration, or overwhelm.
- Begin to understand that pausing helps emotions settle before responding.
Emotional Regulation & Self-Management
Freeze and Think helps students to:
- Practise calming physical strategies such as breathing, stretching, and grounding.
- Learn how to pause their body before reacting.
- Build the habit of stopping, calming, and resetting during moments of emotional intensity.
Mindfulness & Body Awareness
Students are supported to:
- Tune into their body signals when moving and when stopping.
- Notice the difference between high-energy movement and calm stillness.
- Connect movement with mindfulness in a simple, age-appropriate way.
Respectful Communication (Non-Verbal Skills)
This activity develops:
- Awareness of non-verbal cues such as stillness, posture, and calm body language.
- The ability to communicate emotional regulation without words.
- Understanding that calm actions send respectful signals to others.
Problem-Solving & Decision-Making
Freeze and Think encourages students to:
- Pause before acting when something unexpected happens.
- Make intentional choices about how to respond.
- Practise choosing peaceful actions instead of reactive behaviours.
Empathy & Social Awareness
Students learn to:
- Respect others’ space and movement during high-energy play.
- Recognise that everyone needs moments to calm down.
- Understand that calming strategies help everyone feel safer and more settled.
Respect, Responsibility & Self-Control
This activity supports students to:
- Take responsibility for their own actions and energy levels.
- Practise self-control during both movement and stillness.
- Learn that calming themselves helps keep the group safe and respectful.
Positive Relationships & Cooperation
Freeze and Think strengthens relationships by:
- Encouraging shared calming routines across the group.
- Reducing impulsive behaviour that can lead to conflict.
- Creating a collective understanding of pausing and resetting together.
Belonging, Safety & Emotional Well-being
Students experience:
- A safe and joyful way to practise emotional regulation.
- Reassurance that it’s okay to have big energy and big feelings.
- Increased confidence in their ability to calm themselves when needed.
Building a Calm, Respectful Classroom Culture
This activity contributes to a positive classroom environment by:
- Normalising pause and reset strategies throughout the day.
- Giving students shared language and actions for calming down.
- Supporting smoother transitions after play, excitement, or conflict.
Peace Pebbles
Peace Pebbles is a gentle, creative activity that helps students explore how small acts of kindness can bring calm, connection, and peace to their world. Inspired by Mercury’s lesson about balancing big emotions, students decorate a smooth pebble using colours and symbols that make them feel relaxed, grateful, or happy. Each student chooses someone special to gift their Peace Pebble to, a friend, a family member, a teacher, or even someone they’ve had a disagreement with, turning their artwork into a meaningful gesture of care and gratitude.
After creating their pebble, students reflect on how giving can soothe conflict, strengthen relationships, and make others feel valued. Peace Pebbles encourages generosity, emotional awareness, and creative self-expression, while reminding students that peaceful actions don’t have to be big to make a difference. It’s a beautiful, calming way to help students understand that kindness is something we can choose, create, and share, one pebble at a time.
Respectful Relationships
Understanding Conflict & Emotional Literacy
This activity supports students to:
- Understand that conflict and big feelings can be eased through thoughtful actions.
- Recognise that kindness and calm behaviours help repair relationships.
- Reflect on how emotions such as anger, sadness, or frustration can shift toward peace through caring gestures.
Emotional Regulation & Self-Management
Peace Pebbles helps students to:
- Explore calm, grounding emotions through colour, symbols, and creative focus.
- Practise slowing down and regulating emotions through a mindful, hands-on activity.
- Learn that calm actions can be chosen even after challenging or emotional moments.
Mindfulness & Self-Awareness
Students are encouraged to:
- Reflect on what makes them feel calm, peaceful, and happy.
- Become aware of their emotional state while creating their pebble.
- Connect internal feelings of calm with external creative expression.
Empathy & Perspective-Taking
This activity builds empathy by helping students to:
- Think intentionally about how another person might feel receiving kindness.
- Consider the emotional needs of others, including those they may have disagreed with.
- Practise generosity and care without expecting anything in return.
Respectful Communication (Verbal & Non-Verbal)
Peace Pebbles develops respectful communication through:
- Symbolic, non-verbal expressions of care and peace.
- Optional written or spoken messages that use kind, thoughtful language.
- Opportunities to explain choices and intentions in a respectful way.
Problem-Solving & Conflict Resolution
Students learn that:
- Conflict does not always require words; peaceful actions can repair harm.
- Small acts of giving can help de-escalate tension.
- Thoughtful gestures can be used as a strategy to restore connection.
Respect, Responsibility & Ethical Action
This activity supports students to:
- Take responsibility for their role in maintaining peaceful relationships.
- Make ethical choices grounded in kindness and care.
- Understand that actions, even small ones, have the power to influence others positively.
Positive Relationships & Repair
Peace Pebbles strengthens relationships by:
- Encouraging acts of generosity and reconciliation.
- Supporting relationship repair after minor conflicts or misunderstandings.
- Reinforcing trust, care, and emotional safety between peers and adults.
Belonging, Inclusion & Safety
Students experience:
- A sense of belonging through shared calm rituals and values.
- Emotional safety in expressing kindness creatively.
- Inclusion through recognising that everyone deserves peace and care.
Building a Calm, Respectful Classroom Culture
This activity contributes to a positive learning environment by:
- Embedding peaceful actions as a normal response to conflict.
- Creating shared symbols of kindness and calm within the classroom.
- Encouraging students to proactively choose peace rather than react emotionally.
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