Anyone have a good activity to teach children to compromise?

Question

I am running a social skills camp and am 1 activity short, the topic is compromise, the activity should be appropriate for 4-5 year olds. I really appreciate any ideas.

Answer 1

Let the kids suggest group activities to do. Could be anything, coloring, a hike, swimming, play a game. Keep it to 4 or 5 ideas. Then promote discussion about which activity to do first. Be sure to use and explain the word compromise, and support their discussion as they figure out what to do. Example: you say, John and Mary want to color for a while but Jane, Joe, and Jeff want to swim, and Ellen wants to play ball. What can we do about this? They will argue a little, but you can support the discussion with comments like Oh, that's a good idea Mary. She said maybe we could color first, and then go swimming, and then tomorrow we will play ball. What do you think?...Ellen is disappointed? How can we compromise on this? Joe says take the ball in the water with us! Maybe that's a good idea, what do you guys think?

Then compliment them on the way they compromised and worked it out. Tell them what a great job they did when considering each other's ideas!

Answer 2

Give each child a puzzle piece...they must compromise/give up their own piece in order to create one big picture.

Or set up a coloring activity and give each child 1 color..if they want to use another color (that someone already has) they must give up the one they have.... and trade.

Answer 3

Like the cake idea, maybe give each person a different ingredient or task, showing that you only have ingredients when you are alone, but can make a cake when you work together.

Answer 4

Bake a cake. Tell one kid to slice it, but the other kid gets to pick their piece first. That's fairness at least. The one kid won't make his slice too big because he doesn't get to pick it. Lol?