The students in a Grade 3 class are painting. Catherine is using a large paintbrush, but wants a smaller one to finish her work. Antoine is also using a large paintbrush, but has a smaller one in front of him that he is not using. When Catherine asks him for the smaller brush, he tells her she has to wait until he is finished. When he turns around, he accidentally touches Catherine’s skirt with his paintbrush and leaves a paint stain. She gets upset and pours water on Antoine’s picture.

How are the different people in this case study feeling?

Catherine: Catherine is upset because even though Antoine isn’t using the small brush, he insists that Catherine should wait until Antoine is finished. And because Catherine is upset, her reaction to Antoine’s mistake was out of anger.

Antoine: Antoine is feeling sneaky so he decides to be stingy and won’t let Catherine borrow the brush he is not using. He then upsets Catherine further by accidentally putting paint on her skirt.  

How can the situation be resolved? Since both of them are third graders which can be counted as children, there should be a teacher or a grown up that can distract them and keep their anger down. After their emotions are stable, the teacher can help initiate Antoine to apologize to Catherine for ruining her skirt, but Catherine should also try and understand and accept Antoine’s apology, and apologize back for ruining his painting.