The School of Play Curriculum
Primary School Grade 3 & 4
Week Twenty Two encourages students to explore peaceful ways of responding to conflict and strong emotions through play, creativity, movement, and reflection. Each activity helps students understand that disagreements are normal, but the way we handle them can make all the difference. Through Peace Pals, students practise solving simple conflicts using calm voices, kind words, and shared solutions. At the same time, Conflict Cool-Down Posters allow them to identify their own emotional regulation strategies and express them visually. These activities empower students to recognise their feelings, communicate thoughtfully, and build confidence in resolving everyday challenges.
The week continues with Freeze and Think, a playful movement-based activity that teaches students the power of pausing, calming their bodies, and returning to the moment with control. Peace Pebbles enrich the experience by allowing students to express kindness through giving, reinforcing that small gestures can reduce conflict and strengthen relationships. Together, these activities promote empathy, patience, and emotional safety. Week Twenty Two helps students build peaceful habits they can carry into their school day and beyond, finding balance in big feelings, just like Mercury teaches in the Playful Astronaut journey.
Weekly Lessons
Peace Pals
Peace Pals introduces students to resolving tricky moments through calm words, teamwork, and understanding. Through short, imaginative role-plays, students explore everyday disagreements, wanting the same toy, deciding who leads a game, or dealing with an accidental bump, and practise turning those moments into peaceful solutions. As they act out each scenario with a partner, they learn to listen, take turns speaking, and try gentle phrases that help everyone feel heard. The activity encourages empathy and helps students recognise that conflicts are a normal part of life, and with simple tools, they can navigate them kindly and confidently.
As pairs share their solutions, the classroom becomes a supportive space where students learn from one another and celebrate calm problem-solving. The activity beautifully connects to the Playful Astronauts’ visit to Mercury, where extreme hot and cold conditions mirror the big feelings that can arise during disagreements. Just as Mercury finds balance, students discover how using their words can bring things back to calm. Peace Pals leaves the group feeling capable, connected, and ready to handle challenges with kindness and confidence.
Respectful Relationships
Communication and Empathy
Peace Pals supports students to:
- Use kind, calm words to solve small disagreements, helping them recognise how language can change the way others feel.
- Listen carefully to their partner during role-play, showing understanding and empathy as they practise resolving pretend conflicts.
- Recognise different emotions that can arise during disagreements and respond with compassion, validating how others might feel in tricky situations.
Cooperation and Social Skills
Peace Pals helps students to:
- Work together with a partner to act out, discuss, and solve simple conflicts, strengthening teamwork and cooperative problem-solving.
- Practise taking turns, sharing ideas, and negotiating solutions in a respectful and supportive environment.
- Build confidence in using strategies such as sharing, turn-taking, apologising, and suggesting fair compromises.
Safety and Acceptance
Peace Pals encourages students to:
- Create an emotionally safe space where practising conflicts feels comfortable, playful, and supported.
- Understand that everyone experiences disagreements and that it is okay to feel frustrated or upset, what matters is choosing safe, kind ways to respond.
- Accept that people may have different wants, needs, or feelings during a disagreement, and that peaceful solutions help everyone feel included and respected.
Conflict Cool-Down Posters
Conflict Cool-Down Posters give students a gentle and creative way to explore what helps them feel steady during tricky moments. Through drawing and colouring, each student creates a personalised poster that shows the strategies that help them calm their mind and body, whether it’s taking slow breaths, finding a quiet space, talking to a trusted adult, or cuddling a favourite toy. As students reflect on these ideas, they begin to understand their own emotional responses and discover that they have tools they can use when big feelings appear. The activity encourages self-awareness while helping students see that feeling upset is normal, and calming down is a skill they can learn and practise.
When the posters are shared with the group, the classroom becomes a community of learners supporting one another. Students listen to their classmates’ ideas, gaining new strategies they might want to try the next time they need a moment to reset. Once displayed, the posters create a colourful “Cool-Down Zone” that students can revisit whenever they need a reminder of how to find balance. This activity aligns beautifully with the Playful Astronauts’ lessons on Mercury, where students learn to bring calm to hot emotional moments. Conflict Cool-Down Posters leave each child feeling empowered, understood, and ready to approach challenges with greater confidence and care.
Respectful Relationships
Communication and Empathy
Conflict Cool-Down Posters support students to:
- Reflect on their own emotions and identify what helps them feel calm during moments of frustration or conflict.
- Share their calming strategies with classmates, helping others understand how different people experience and manage big feelings.
- Listen to peers’ ideas with empathy, recognising that everyone has different needs and unique ways of soothing themselves.
Cooperation and Social Skills
Conflict Cool-Down Posters help students to:
- Participate in a class discussion about calming strategies, building a shared understanding of peaceful conflict resolution.
- Learn new self-regulation tools from their peers, strengthening their ability to manage disagreements respectfully.
- Contribute to a collective display that supports everyone in the classroom, fostering cooperation and a sense of shared responsibility.
Safety and Acceptance
Conflict Cool-Down Posters encourage students to:
- Create an emotionally safe environment where expressing feelings and sharing calming strategies is supported and respected.
- Accept that people experience “hot” (angry, upset) and “cool” (calm, peaceful) moments differently, and that all feelings are normal.
- Develop confidence in choosing calming strategies that work for them, reinforcing that everyone deserves to feel safe, valued, and in control of their emotions.
Freeze and Think
Freeze and Think blends energetic movement with moments of calm, helping students discover how their bodies and minds can work together to find balance. As upbeat music plays, students dance freely, enjoying the chance to move, explore, and release energy. But when the music suddenly stops, they freeze and shift into a calming action, taking a deep breath, stretching gently, or giving themselves a soft hug. These quick switches between movement and mindfulness help students learn that even in moments of excitement or frustration, they can pause, reset, and regain control. The game turns self-regulation into something playful, accessible, and empowering.
Each freeze moment becomes a chance for students to practise choosing peaceful actions, building confidence in their ability to respond thoughtfully when big feelings arise. As they share which strategies helped them feel most settled, the class begins to form a toolkit of calming ideas they can use throughout the day. The activity connects beautifully with the lessons from Mercury, where extreme highs and lows are balanced through steady, reflective choices. Freeze and Think leaves students feeling energised, centred, and more aware of how to bring calm into their everyday experiences.
Respectful Relationships
Communication and Empathy
Freeze and Think supports students to:
- Recognise their own emotional signals and choose calming actions that help their bodies feel safe and settled.
- Understand that everyone experiences big feelings and needs time to pause and reset, building empathy for peers during challenging moments.
- Share and demonstrate calming strategies with classmates, helping others learn new ways to regulate their emotions.
Cooperation and Social Skills
Freeze and Think helps students to:
- Move safely alongside peers, showing awareness of others and practising respectful shared space.
- Follow group cues, music starting and stopping, while responding calmly and predictably, strengthening self-control and cooperation.
- Support a positive classroom environment by participating in a shared routine that promotes emotional regulation for all students.
Safety and Acceptance
Freeze and Think encourages students to:
- Practise calming strategies that help them feel safe inside their own bodies, especially during moments of frustration or conflict.
- Accept differences in how each person chooses to calm down, understanding that everyone’s body and emotions are unique.
- Build confidence in pausing, thinking, and choosing a peaceful response, reinforcing that it’s okay to take time to cool down before reacting.
Peace Pebbles
Peace Pebbles invites students to slow down, reflect, and create a heartfelt gift that symbolises kindness and calm. Using soft colours and meaningful symbols, each child decorates a pebble that represents peace, whether it’s a reminder of gratitude, a way to repair a disagreement, or a simple message of care. As they choose someone special to receive their pebble, students think deeply about the people who support them, the friendships they value, and the small actions that can help bring harmony to their relationships. The activity blends creativity and emotional reflection, allowing students to express positive feelings through colours, shapes, and symbols that feel peaceful to them.
Giving the pebble becomes a powerful moment of connection. Whether quietly placed on a desk, tucked into a locker, or delivered with a short message, each Peace Pebble carries warmth and intention. When students share how it felt to give their pebble, and how they imagine the recipient felt, the group begins to understand how generosity can repair, strengthen, and uplift. This links beautifully with the lessons from Mercury in The Playful Astronauts story, where thoughtful actions help balance challenging moments. Peace Pebbles leaves the class feeling grounded, connected, and inspired to use kindness as a way to bring people together.
Respectful Relationships
Communication and Empathy
Peace Pebbles supports students to:
- Think about someone special and express appreciation through a meaningful gift, strengthening emotional connection.
- Consider how giving kindness can help repair relationships or bring comfort to someone who may need it.
- Use calm colours and symbols to communicate peaceful feelings, expressing emotions through art rather than words alone.
Cooperation and Social Skills
Peace Pebbles helps students to:
- Practise gratitude and generosity, learning how small, thoughtful actions can build and maintain positive friendships.
- Share their creations with peers in a respectful way, listening to others explain who they chose and why.
- Strengthen the classroom culture by contributing to a supportive environment where acts of kindness are valued.
Safety and Acceptance
Peace Pebbles encourages students to:
- Understand that everyone experiences conflict, and peaceful gestures can help people feel safe and cared for again.
- Respect that each student may choose different colours, symbols, and recipients based on what brings them calm or joy.
- Feel accepted and empowered to express kindness in their own unique way, reinforcing that giving and connection help create emotional safety.
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