Friendship Activities
| 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.
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| “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. |