Plan
- How much time will you take to write story summaries?
- How much time will you take before presenting to the group?
- What roles will everyone play? How will you decide?
- How much time will you take to try to find a solution to the conflict being presented? How will you know when to stop?
Do
- In small groups, write summaries of one or two fairy tales. Focus on the main conflict (disagreement).
- Think about roles for at least two people (but you can have more). For example, you might write a summary of The Three Little Pigs, describing the roles of the wolf and the pigs and what happened in the story.
- Come together as a large group. Swap your group’s summary for another group’s.
- Find out how many roles there are in the story, then decide who will play each part.
- Take a minute or two to discuss the conflict, then get in character to present it to the rest of the group. Those presenting should sit in chairs, and the rest of the group should sit in a circle around them.
- After the conflict has been presented, the group can ask questions of the actors and try to find a solution to the problem.
- As a group, try to find a solution that works for everyone in the story – don’t just tell the wolf he’s in trouble and send him away! Maybe your solution is that the wolf apologizes and helps the pigs to rebuild their houses, and in exchange they help him build a house of his own.
Review
- What do you know now that you did not know before?
- How did you feel before, during and after this adventure?
- What did you like or not like about the solutions the group suggested for the summary your group wrote?
- How did it feel to be questioned by the group? What did you discover through this process?
Keep it Simple
Play a game, like The Bears and the Bees or Rock, Paper, Conflict to learn the different steps to conflict resolution. Then, once you’re familiar with the steps, try solving some fairy tale conflicts!
Take it Further
Rather than solving conflicts from fairy tales, act out some scenarios that have happened to you. Make sure not to use anyone’s name or hurt anyone’s feelings while acting out your scenario! Talk about some solutions to the scenario, as well as possible ways to stop this conflict from happening again.
