| Friendship Activities | |
|---|---|
| Activity | Examples |
| Friendship-themed literature | see reading list in appendix. |
| Friendship songs | Online resources such as: http://www.songsforteaching.com/friendshipsongs.htm😉 |
| Friendship finger plays | The Friendship Song (“London Bridge”) A friend is someone who is kind, who is kind, who is kind. A friend is someone who is kind, just like (child’s name). A friend is someone who can help, who can help, who can help. A friend is someone who can help, just like (child’s name). A friend is someone who can share, who can share, who can share. A friend is someone who can share, just like (child’s name). A friend is someone you can trust, you can trust, you can trust. A friend is someone you can trust, just like (child’s name). http://educationalcreativity.blogspot.com/2011/08/fingerplay-friday-friends -and-family.html |
| Friendship games | Roll a ball to a child sitting in the meeting circle, greeting her by name and naming a positive quality about her as a friend; the child then repeats this with another until every child has been included. |
| Social stories: first developed for use with children with special needs but also effectively used in everyday classroom situations to provide examples of appropriate interactions or behavior (Gray, C.; Broek et al., 1994). A social story is written in three parts, describing an action, a perspective, and directions for an appropriate response or behavior. | SHARING
Sharing is when I let a friend use something I have. Sharing is also when I give something to someone else. Sharing is something friends do. Sometimes I feel like sharing, sometimes I would rather not. Sometimes it is hard to share, but I feel better when I do. It can make me sad or angry when my friends don’t share with me. I will remember that when I share, I am being friendly. I will try to remember that when I don’t want to share, I will use my words to tell why.
|
| “Friendship recipe” | Each child writes (or dictates to the teacher) one thing that a good friend does on an individual item, such as a paper-chain link or a cutout star, that you subsequently combine to write a recipe for friendship. |
| Friendship snacks | Each child identifies one favorite ingredient to create a snack mix that all share. |
| Tell/share personal stories that help children learn about each other (Lake, 2010) | Telling a story about a pet or favorite grownup (including the teachers). |
| “Me” books to keep in the classroom library for sharing periodically or as a way of introducing children to one another. | Book pages include things like “my family,” “my pet,” “things I like to do,” etc. |
| “Happy photo” gallery | Each child uses the digital camera to take a photograph of one of the other children doing something he or she likes to do. |
| Classroom mailbox | Provide or make a mailbox in the classroom that children can use to write/draw/send notes to one another. |
| Window garden | Plant a window garden together that includes children’s favorite flowers. |
| “Friendship book” corner | Designate a special place that includes a selection of the children’s favorite stories about friends, and put a sticker on the cover of each book with the name of the child who chose it. |
| “Yuck” board | Make a display or poster that lists children’s least favorite things to eat or do; there’s camaraderie in shared misery! |
| Special “smile” days | Designate days periodically with special focus on smilesgive children a “high five” each time you notice them smiling at someone else, saying “Caught you smiling!” |
| Puppets | Act out specific skills such as inviting a friend to play or asking to join play. |
| Flannel board stories | Use cutouts on a flannel board to act out appropriate interactions with familiar characters (such as the Rainbow Fish). |
| Role playing | Act out prosocial behaviors, such as how to give a compliment to another child. |
| Coaching | Invite a child to demonstrate desired friendship skills to another, for example, Peter, can you thank Sam for helping you put the cars away?” |
| Friendship journal | Help children dictate, write, or draw pictures in a book they keep to document successful friendship skills: for example, drawing a picture about how the child welcomed a new child to the class. |
| “Kind words” poster | Keep track of and display on a poster that you can use for reference actual words children use to give each other compliments or express kindness. |
Table 9.3 Friendship Activities
9.3 Promoting Self-Regulation
Self-regulation links all the domains of development and is considered one of the most reliable predictors of academic and social success in later life (McClelland, Cameron, Wanless, & Murray, 2007; Montroy, Bowles, Skibbe, McClelland, & Morrison, 2016; Papalia & Feldman, 2011). It is important during early childhood because children need to learn how to delay gratification; respond and adapt to rules; and handle frustration, challenges, and disappointments in socially acceptable ways. We want them to do so not only because of the sense of satisfaction they feel when they know they are making good decisions but also because being able to control themselves sets them up as more likely to achieve success as adults.
Adults promote self-regulation when, before stepping in to help, they wait to see if the child can solve a dilemma alone. That is, they wait not so long that the child becomes frustrated and angry or at risk for getting hurt but to communicate confidence that at some point they expect that the child will be able to solve problems independently.