TheBeezyTeacher: Will You Be My Friend?

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Will You Be My Friend?

This is a question often heard throughout our classrooms during the school year; and it is a question that sometimes leads to hurt feelings. Teaching and modeling for children on how to deal with these questions and answers is a social skill that is perfect for this time of year. Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and a wonderful time to celebrate how to be a friend and accepting and giving compliments.

One of our favorite ways to celebrate friendship is with a Friendship Quilt. Each child decorates a square of paper that we “sew” together to make a quilt to hang for everyone to see. One quilt square is nice, but a quilt of all the friends’ squares is Awesome! This activity is a great way to talk about quilts too.

Another fun activity is Friend Bingo. Make bingo boards with pictures of children on the boards and cards of the children as well. The players take turns picking a child’s picture, then name the child and tell something they like about that child. The other players get to cover up the picture with a candy heart or other type of marker.

Try fixing a broken heart by saying things that make our friends feel better.

A super simple activity for accepting and giving compliments is to cut out paper hearts and write each child’s name on a heart. Crumple the hearts up and put them all in a basket. One child at a time picks up a crumpled heart and opens it up. They read the child’s name and must compliment the child whose name is on the heart. In turn, the child accepts the compliment and then choses a heart to compliment the next child, until everyone has had a chance to receive and accept a compliment. There are lots of great books about quilts and it is even better when someone can demonstrate how he/she actually makes a quilt!