Puppet Shows for Peace
Trying to teach young students conflict resolution can often be difficult. At a young age, many children still do not know how to label their emotions or properly communicate how they are feeling. This makes using techniques for conflict education used for older students, like role playing and group discussions, difficult.
One way to teach at the level of young students is to put on a puppet show. Use puppets to act out conflict situations. Engage the children in a discussion of how the puppets can resolve their problems peacefully. This can be done both spontaneously, or as a planned activity.
Spontaneous Activity:
If a conflict is occurring in the classroom, choose puppets to act out the conflict. The teacher may play one of the characters, using words the children would use in the conflict. One of the children could control the other puppet. The puppets “act out” the conflict. The teacher could also use the puppets to act out two or three different ways of handling the conflict. Ask the children to suggest what the child puppet might say in response.
Planned Activity:
The teacher and the children could make up several skits using the puppets. They should be kept very short for young kids. Have the skits demonstrate a peaceful way to resolve a typical conflict. (Choose conflicts that occur within the classroom.) Act out both a “fighting” way to resolve a conflict and an “avoiding” way to handle conflict. After the puppet shows, talk about the puppets’ behavior.
Using puppets to act out real conflicts for the children puts the situation at a safe distance from their emotional reality. This enables the children to be more objective and comfortable with the activity.
Excerpted from Free the Children by Susan Gingras Fitzell.
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