Appreciating friendships

Students reflect on actions, attributes and feelings associated with being friendly and unfriendly.

2. Conduct a shared reading of How to Be a Friend: A Guide to Making Friends and Keeping Them.
3. Using the Teaching Resource: Friendly and unfriendly signs, place a ‘friendly’ sign at one end of the room and ‘unfriendly’ sign at the other. Have students consider several of the following scenarios then move to the sign that best represents their opinion. Invite students to discuss their placement with others near them.
   • You have a different type of backpack to all the other girls in your class. Some of the girls in your class laugh and point at your backpack when you walk to class.
   • A new girl has joined your class. She looks a little lonely at recess so you ask her if she would like to play on the swings with you.
   • You tell your friend about your exciting weekend away on a farm and he just talks about what he did on the weekend and says nothing about your time on the farm.
   • Your friend lets you take her favourite doll home for the night to play with.
   • A boy in your class always gets angry when he gets out playing a game.
   • Your friend is good at doing tricks on the trampoline. You are not so good and often make mistakes. She never laughs at you. She just tells you in a kind voice what you did well.

4. Ask:

   How do we feel when people are being friendly to us? 

   (warm, happy, like we belong, important)

   How d o we feel when people are being unfriendly to us? 

   (sad, nervous, rejected)

   What are some of the skills for getting along with our friends and others? Think about what we learnt in the book.  

Draw a T-chart and label it 'Friendly' and 'Unfriendly'. Whiteboard these responses under the 'Friendly' column and draw pictures for each to act as a trigger for poorer readers.

(Listening, saying thank you, including people, finding things in common, being a good winner and loser, being interesting, sharing, giving compliments, saying nice things and not bad things.)

Are you born with these skills?

(no, you have to learn and practise them.)

Why is it important to practice and grow these skills? 

(Stops issues from happening in friends) 

What kinds of problems can friendships have?

(Arguments, jealousies, growing apart, not being nice,)

5. Say: 

   "All friendships have problems sometimes but these problems can usually be sorted out. Some friendships are only temporary but this doesn’t mean that one of you has done something wrong or that you are not likeable."

6. Ask:

What are some things that make it harder to be friendly with someone even though they are probably a nice person?

Whiteboard these responses under the 'Unfriendly' column of the T-chart and draw pictures for each to act as a trigger for poorer readers.

(Unhealthy behaviours such as being a poor loser or winner; making negative comments; constantly talking about self; scowling and looking grumpy; not saying anything about self or how they feel; not sharing; being mean and nasty; starting fights over small things; not being flexible).