The School of Play Curriculum
Primary School Grade 3 & 4
Respectful Relationships Outcomes – Grades 3 & 4
Communication and Empathy
Students in Grades 3 and 4 should be able to:
- Active listening: Listen carefully to others, ask questions, and show understanding through body language and responses.
- Respectful expression: Communicate their own feelings, needs, and ideas calmly, clearly, and respectfully.
- Understanding viewpoints: Consider other people's perspectives, recognise different feelings, and respond with empathy.
Cooperation and Social Skills
Students in Grades 3 and 4 should be able to:
- Teamwork: Cooperate and collaborate positively in groups, showing fairness whether they win or lose.
- Sharing and fairness: Share space, materials, and opportunities in a kind and considerate way.
- Showing appreciation: Notice and acknowledge others' positive actions, offering encouragement and gratitude.
Safety and Acceptance
Students in Grades 3 and 4 should be able to:
- Feeling safe: Understand that everyone has the right to feel safe, respected, and cared for in all interactions.
- Acceptance: Accept and respect others even when mistakes happen, recognising that everyone is learning.
- Equality: Understand that all people are equal and deserve to be treated with fairness and value.
Weekly Lessons
Fix-It Together!
Fix-It Together! is a playful, drama-based activity that helps students recognise common friendship challenges and practise respectful problem-solving as a team. Each group brings a Social Dilemma Card to life through a short acted scene, giving the whole class a chance to see the tricky moment unfold. When the facilitator hits the ‘pause’ button, everyone freezes, creating a perfect opportunity for thoughtful discussion. Together, students identify the problem, consider how each person might be feeling, and explore how the situation could affect their relationships. This shared reflection helps them develop empathy, communication skills, and awareness of the impact their choices have on others.
After brainstorming respectful solutions, students rewind and replay the scene, this time acting out their improved, kinder approach. The class celebrates their efforts, suggests alternative ideas, and reflects on how these strategies could be used in real-life situations. Fix-It Together! transforms conflict into a learning opportunity, empowering students to stay calm, choose respectful words, and work collaboratively when problems arise. Through creativity, teamwork, and positive rehearsal, students build the confidence and social awareness needed to navigate friendships with care and kindness.
Respectful Relationships
Communication and Empathy
Fix-It Together! supports students to:
- Recognise and name emotions that appear in friendship dilemmas, helping them understand how others may feel during conflict.
- Practise listening to peers, sharing ideas respectfully, and discussing how actions impact feelings and relationships.
- Use kind, calm language to repair misunderstandings, strengthening empathy and emotional safety.
Cooperation and Social Skills
This activity helps students to:
- Work collaboratively to act out dilemmas, freeze at “tricky moments,” and discuss respectful solutions as a group.
- Explore multiple perspectives and agree on fair, inclusive responses that support everyone involved.
- Develop confidence in role-playing respectful strategies, reinforcing teamwork, compromise, and positive problem-solving.
Safety and Help-Seeking
Fix-It Together! encourages students to:
- Understand when a situation feels unsafe, unfair, or emotionally overwhelming, and identify when to seek help from a trusted adult.
- Practise strategies that de-escalate conflict, such as pausing, breathing, speaking calmly, and checking in with others.
- Recognise that respectful problem-solving helps friendships stay strong and classrooms feel safe, supportive, and inclusive.
Who’s Your Crew?
Who’s Your Crew? is a reflective wellbeing activity that helps students identify the trusted people in their lives and understand how to seek help when they need it. By creating a personal Support Crew Map, students visually explore the adults and peers they feel safe with at home, at school, and in their community. The activity empowers them to name the qualities of trustworthy people, recognise who they can turn to in different situations, and build confidence in asking for support. Through gentle guidance and help-seeking sentence starters, students practise the language of reaching out, removing shame, fear, or uncertainty around asking for help.
Once students map out their crew, they explore real-life scenarios and reflect on who they would turn to and how they would begin the conversation. Pair work encourages peer coaching, allowing students to practise support-seeking skills in a safe, respectful way. Who’s Your Crew? reinforces that everyone needs help sometimes and that knowing your trusted people is an important part of staying safe, connected, and emotionally strong. The activity builds belonging, self-awareness, and lifelong help-seeking confidence, reminding students that no one has to navigate challenges alone.
Respectful Relationships
Communication and Empathy
Who’s Your Crew? supports students to:
- Explore what trustworthy, supportive behaviour looks and feels like, helping them understand the qualities of safe and caring relationships.
- Practise using sentence starters that show respectful communication when asking for help, building confidence in expressing needs.
- Listen to a partner’s scenarios and offer supportive language, strengthening empathy and perspective-taking.
Cooperation and Social Skills
This activity helps students to:
- Work with peers to discuss real-life emotional moments and identify trusted people who can offer support.
- Build social confidence by practising help-seeking conversations with a partner in a safe and supportive way.
- Strengthen friendships and classroom unity through peer coaching, understanding that everyone needs help sometimes.
Safety and Help-Seeking
Who’s Your Crew? encourages students to:
- Identify a range of trusted adults and peers they can turn to at home, at school, and in the community.
- Understand the difference between small everyday problems and situations that require adult intervention.
- Practise the skill of asking for help using clear, respectful language, reinforcing the message that seeking support is safe, appropriate, and empowering.
Rewind!
Rewind! is a playful yet powerful activity that teaches students how to reflect on their behaviour and explore kinder, more respectful ways to respond when things go wrong. Through dramatic role-play, students act out real-life conflict moments and experience firsthand how different choices affect others. By pressing pause and “rewinding” the scene, they learn to recognise what went wrong, how someone might have felt, and what a calmer or more thoughtful response could look like. This creates a safe, creative environment where mistakes become learning opportunities rather than problems to hide.
In the replay, students practise using respectful words, empathy, and self-regulation strategies to solve the conflict in a better way. The shared performances spark meaningful discussions about emotions, consequences, and friendships, helping students discover that small behaviour shifts can make big differences. Rewind! builds confidence, emotional awareness, and problem-solving skills, empowering students to pause, reset, and choose more positive actions in their everyday lives.
Respectful Relationships
Communication and Empathy
Rewind! supports students to:
- Reflect on how their words and actions impact others, helping them build emotional awareness and consideration for peers.
- Talk through tricky social moments using calm and respectful language, strengthening empathy and understanding in conflict situations.
- Listen to classmates’ reflections and ideas during the “rewind” discussion, practising compassionate communication and perspective-taking.
Cooperation and Social Skills
This activity helps students to:
- Work together in small groups to act out scenarios, demonstrating teamwork, role-sharing, and collaborative decision-making.
- Explore different ways to respond to conflict, rehearsing respectful solutions that improve relationships and reduce tension.
- Encourage and support peers when replaying scenes, promoting kindness, cooperation, and positive behaviour habits.
Safety and Help-Seeking
Rewind! encourages students to:
- Recognise when a situation is escalating and practise using calming strategies to reset, increasing emotional safety for themselves and others.
- Understand that mistakes are normal and can be safely repaired through reflection, honest communication, and respectful action.
- Identify when a conflict is too big to handle alone and consider when help from a trusted adult may be needed.
Culture Quest
Culture Quest is a joyful, movement-based activity that invites students to explore and celebrate their own identity while learning about the diverse stories within their classroom. Through simple prompts about family traditions, favourite foods, and important values, students gain confidence in sharing what makes them unique. As they mingle, swap cards, and retell what they’ve learned from others, they practise active listening, respectful curiosity, and appreciation for the different experiences that shape each person’s life. This builds pride, understanding, and a sense of belonging for every student.
The activity becomes a powerful community-builder as students discover similarities they didn’t expect and differences they admire. By learning to speak positively about their own culture and respectfully about others, students strengthen inclusion and empathy, key foundations of a safe and welcoming classroom. Culture Quest shows students that everyone’s story matters and that diversity enriches the whole group, making the classroom a stronger, kinder, and more connected space.
Respectful Relationships
Communication and Empathy
Culture Quest supports students to:
- Share personal stories about their traditions, values, and interests, helping them express identity with confidence and clarity.
- Listen actively and respectfully to classmates’ stories, building empathy and curiosity about different backgrounds and lived experiences.
- Retell what they learned about others, showing understanding, appreciation, and respectful communication.
Cooperation and Social Skills
This activity helps students to:
- Engage in partner and group sharing, practising turn-taking, positive body language, and cooperative dialogue.
- Swap cards and share each other’s stories, strengthening social connection and celebrating differences within the group.
- Work as a class to create an inclusive environment where every culture, value, and tradition is welcomed and respected.
Safety and Help-Seeking
Culture Quest encourages students to:
- Recognise that everyone’s background and identity are important, helping create a classroom where students feel safe, seen, and valued.
- Understand that respectful sharing means protecting others’ feelings and knowing what is appropriate to share or keep private.
- Seek help from a trusted adult if cultural misunderstandings arise, learning that support is available when navigating sensitive conversations.
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