Activity Bank

Students explore what it means to be an ally or passive bystander. They listen to a scenario concerning bullying and harassment, and decide how they would respond by standing in one of four corners representing options of intervention: Ignore/walk away, attempt to negotiate, talk to the person privately later, or seek assistance from an adult.

Students draw an outline of their hand and then choose 5 identities they feel are the most important to them to write on the fingers. In pairs and in a group discussion, students explore the relationship between their identities and how they can change.

Students line up by birthday and are given an unequal amount of treats, leading to a discussion on privilege.

Everyone shares something that makes them sad, and the rest of the group shows if they can understand in order to practice empathy and listening.

Students brainstorm how to respond to teasing and exclusion, then practice being an assertive ally through roleplay.

Students explore what it means to be an ally, and enact scenarios in which allies are needed in skits.

Students critically analyze a media piece to understand how passiveness, aggressiveness, passive-aggressiveness, and assertiveness are or are not shown in TV shows, movies, and videos.

In 5 parts, through discussion and role-plays, students explore the differences between passive, aggressive, and assertive responses to violence.

Students mime a feeling and find others in that same group.

Students act out a story where each character spreads peace to another and a ball of string is passed to each new character representing their interconnection.

Students reflect on common aggressive situations, imagining how they would like to respond in an assertive way and drawing their own superhero cape.

Students listen to a story and recall details through the lens of different roles in order to understand perspective, bias, and empathy.

Students think of what is considered inside and outside of the box for gender identities, understanding how stereotypes shape (and limit) our ideas of how girls and boys are supposed to be.

The group creates a classroom flag that serves as a living contract for agreements and behaviors that will help them work well together for the school year. (Outdoor Project activity)

Students look at a picture of a cloud and share their perspectives on what they see, first without a prompt and then with a prompt. The discussion explores how our perspectives are influenced by others and our own experiences, relating to prejudice and bias.

This activity emphasizes the interconnectedness of all people in a community. Each student takes on a character from the neighborhood. By articulating the interconnections between neighbors, a ball of yarn is passed from person to person to create a community web.

Students play Musical Chairs, and then Cooperative Music Chairs where rather than getting “out” each round, students work together to ensure everyone can stay “in” and share chairs.

Students are instructed to “do nothing” but watch one classmate, whom they mimic if they see make any movements.

Students work with a partner to get up from a seated position to a standing position.

Students take turns mirroring each other’s facial expressions and body gestures.

Students act out different feelings to their team members in a relay race.

In short scenarios, students first respond to a conflict scenario with a Peace Blocker (blame, guilt, defensiveness), and then get to rewind and practice using a Key to Peace instead (listening, empathy, assertiveness).

The class pays attention to a student’s body language, facial expression, and tone of voice to guess which feeling they are acting out.

Students reflect on how they would feel in a given situation, and then act out their emotion for the class to guess.

Students learn that I-Statements are a way to speak without blame, and practice creating I-Statements for a problem.

After brainstorming all the social identities we can have, students reflect on the “Invisible Knapsack” list of ways privilege shows up in daily life. Then, students share about different ways their identities, privilege, and discrimination show up at school.

In a circle, a student does a unique dance move and then is followed by the rest of the class. All students get a turn to do an individual dance move!

Students experience being on the outside of a circle trying to get in, and being on the inside of the circle trying to keep another out. 

Students pass balls around a circle rhythmically until each student has their original ball again.

With rotating partners, students say Yes or No, and then a simple sentence, in a range of tones and with gestures, exploring how tone of voice and body language changes the meaning of a word or sentence in a conversation.

Students learn the Mosaic Agreements by acting them out in skits.

Students learn the word sessle to discover ways to mix it up and meet new people.

Students learn about interconnectedness through a video and a group game.

Students celebrate their differences with a game; students learn how stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination can stand in the way of celebrating our diversity. (Outdoor Project activity)

Students learn the first two Keys to Peace by playing a listening game and then practicing empathizing with multiple various scenarios.

Students learn that assertiveness is a way to respond to violence that is strong without being mean, and an option to stop the spread of poison.

Students learn the 5 Tools of Conflict Resolution through videos and practice using each tool.

The group makes the sound of a rainstorm using their bodies.

Students will brainstorm feeling words and sort them into “me feelings” and “hidden you feelings.”

In this activity, students will devise skits and act out the six Mosaic agreements. Each skit will be presented in two takes: take 1 shows what happens when the agreement is absent from the interaction and take 2 successfully demonstrates the agreement at play. Students in the audience must guess which agreement is exemplified in each set of skits.

Students explore how we can be similar while also being different: same same, but different! Students play Welcome Circle to celebrate the diversity in the group, then draw their homes to see the similarities and differences that they have with each other.

Students learn that Assertiveness is being strong without being mean, and it’s like your own superpower because can stop the spread of poison. Students practice saying “No” assertively and imagine themselves as assertive superheroes.

Students learn that every story has more than one side, and that using the 5 Tools of Conflict Resolution can help solve problems. Through acting out skits and playing Tug of Peace, they understand that the spirit of conflict resolution is that everyone can win together.

Students learn the Peace High Five, and read Two by Kathryn Otoshi about tensions in a friendship. Students then learn how to mix it up and make new friends with the activity Sessle Sessle and a collaborative collage art project.

Students review the Mosaic values with the Theme Song and read “How Full is Your Bucket?” to understand that positive actions “fill” one’s bucket and negative actions “drip” one’s bucket. Students play a game to fill each other’s buckets through giving and receiving put-ups, and draw what fills their invisible bucket.

Students learn that although everyone is different, everyone has value for being themselves.

Students choose sides in a story, and then have the opportunity to hear both sides of the story.

Students stand in the designated corners of the classroom indicating if they do or don’t belong to particular groups, based on interest/tastes/culture.

Students explore what parts of us create our perspective by drawing Point of View Glasses.

Students create a sculpture representing power and discuss how we typically think of power as domination or power over. Students then create new sculptures to demonstrate alternative forms of power, and discuss power with.

This activity focuses on judging and being judged. Students select presents for various hypothetical community members and explore the assumptions that informed their gift selections.

Students learn about privilege through a challenge. They must make shots into a bucket, but are placed in various positions around the room, some with a clear shot and others with barriers. Then, students brainstorm how to create a more equitable game set-up.

A puppet (and the class) learns how to be assertive — strong without being mean — in response to themselves or others being hurt.

Students are introduced to the Conflict Resolution Stoplight by engaging in a puppet show where they resolve a conflict using three steps: Red: Stop, Yellow: Empathize and Think, Green: Act on a Plan.

A puppet helps demonstrate the differences between being passive, aggressive, and assertive.

A puppet is very upset, and learns along with the students how to balloon – take deep breaths to calm down.

Marmalade the Puppet finds 3 friends and learns that “Being a good friend means liking you for who you are!”

Students play a game very similar to arm wrestling but learn that they will get the most points when working together.

A story is told in various stages to demonstrate how details can change, and how rumors/gossip/harmful actions can spread.

In 5 Parts, students explore anger and its unhealthy manifestations, and practice new healthy tools to deal with their anger.

In 7 Parts, students understand anger and practice healthy ways to deal with their anger.

In 5 parts, through discussion and role-plays, students explore the differences between passive, aggressive, and assertive responses to challenging situations.

In 6 parts, students explore big feelings like anger and sadness, and practice healthy ways to deal with being mad.

Students find various pair shares and take turns responding to a prompt in order to get to know each other better. (Outdoor Project activity)

Students create a story describing a chain reaction of peaceful actions.

Students brainstorm ways that poison and peace spread at school, and reflect on how they want to shape their school environment.

Students examine how the media creates and perpetuates stereotypes of certain characters (the “grandmother,” “scientist,” “athlete,” and “villain”). Students reflect on the dangers of stereotypes in the media for these characters as well as other identities that get put in boxes.

Students learn the Comfort, Stretch, and Rip Zones and that being a little uncomfortable in the Stretch Zone helps us grow and learn new things. (Outdoor Project activity)

Students brainstorm what helps and doesn’t help resolve a conflict, and learn the three Peace Blockers: blame, guilt, and defensiveness. Students sort different common phrases/reactions into the three blockers to learn to recognize them.

3 groups make a poster for the class, but with different sets of art supplies. Students discuss fairness, privilege, and using what we have to make things better for everyone.

Students try to keep steady while trying to tip their partner off balance, until eventually they realize they can both stay steady if they work together.

Students use the metaphor of an iceberg to write how others see them (tip of the iceberg), and how they see themselves (the iceberg that is underwater).

Students create a unified sound and movement, a metaphor for culture.

Students embody different emotions while walking around a space, building understanding of how assertiveness, passiveness, and aggressiveness feel.

Students are welcomed by their peers as they step into the circle for different aspects of their identity.

Students brainstorm what it means to be a good friend.

Students draw a self portrait, then practice asking good questions about their partner’s drawing in order to get to know each other under the waterline.

In responding to a prompt, students reflect their classmate’s answer before sharing their own thoughts.