Making
lesson 9:
friendship foundations, part 1
Lesson Summary
Teacher Tip: This lesson connects with Myself Lesson Two: Personal Foundations. Please complete Myself: Lesson Two, before moving onto this lesson.
In this lesson, we will apply our understanding of our personal foundations to our friendships, investigating what our friendship foundations are and how we can develop them. Through Statement Sorting students will learn different strategies they can employ to demonstrate and strengthen each of their friendship foundations, helping them to be better friends.
Purpose
Purpose: This lesson helps students understand themselves and their friendships by exploring the four key foundations: dealing with mistakes, staying curious, handling change, and bringing their strengths.
Process
Time Needed: 25-30 minutes.
Activity: Friendship Freeze (5 mins)
Intro (5 mins)
Activity: Friendship Foundation Statement Sorting (10-15 mins)
Debrief and Reflection (5 mins)
Materials & downloads
For this lesson, you will need the following:
Pen or pencil
Coloured pencils
Optional: Student workbook / notebook
Activity: friendship freeze (5 mins)
For this activity, students will be given a friendship prompt by their teacher. When the music stops or the teacher says “Freeze” the students must freeze in a pose that demonstrates the friendship prompt.
How it works:
Before the students move, share the friendship prompt.
Examples of friendship prompts include:
“Show me how you can be a good friend
“Show me how you can help or support someone!”
“Show me how you might make a friend feel happy!”
“Show me how you can listen to a friend!”
Students move around the classroom space while music plays or when the teacher calls out “Go!”.
When the teacher says “Freeze!”, students must freeze in a pose that shows a specific friendship action.
Repeat the activity for 4-5 rounds.
Debrief:
In this activity, students see that they each show how they are a good friend differently. Just like how a row of houses have different designs inside! They each might have different coloured pieces of furniture or different sized rooms. What all of the houses have in common though are strong foundations. These foundations keep the houses sturdy and standing tall. To be a really effective and supportive friend, we also need to have strong friendship foundations. Then we can use our individual qualities to make our friendship interesting and exciting!
intro (5 mins)
We have previously learned that before we can build a great friendship, we need to know and understand ourselves. That means understanding: how we respond when we do or say the wrong thing (Deal with Mistakes); learn more about ourselves and others (Stay Curious); how to adjust when things change (Handle Change) and what we’re good at and what we can work on (Know your Strengths). Just like we need to have strong personal foundations, to be a great friend we also need to have strong friendship foundations. We are going to apply what we have learned about our personal foundations to our friendships and learn about our friendship foundations. These foundations help us connect, support, and grow with our friends.
The four key friendship foundations are:
Deal with Mistakes – Nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes, such as saying or doing the wrong thing. How we apologise, learn, and choose to move forward can either strengthen or weaken our friendships.
Stay Curious – Being curious means we’re interested in our friends’ ideas, feelings, and experiences. We don’t just think about ourselves - what we like, how we feel and what we want to do, we have to look beyond ourselves and think about our friends. Curiosity helps us understand our friends more and keep friendships exciting.
Handle Change – Friends may move to a new class or school, grow, or change their interests. We can’t control what they do, but we can control how we respond, by staying thoughtful and kind as things shift and change.
Know Your Strengths – We each have our own strengths and qualities that make us who we are, such as creativity, humour, or problem-solving, that help our friendships thrive. Growing our strengths lets us support our friends and ourselves.
These four foundations shape how you treat others and how strong your friendships can be.
When you understand these friendship foundations and learn how to make each of them stronger, you become a better friend, classmate, and person.
Activity: friendship foundation statement sorting (10-15 mins)
For this activity, you will need the Friendship Foundations Worksheet.
Next, students read each statement and then colour in the box to match the correct foundation it belongs to. These statements are practical things students can do to strengthen each foundation. Students should use 4 different coloured pens or pencils, one for each foundation.
Teacher Tip: For students in Grade 1/2, read the statements out loud one at a time and then decide as a class which foundation it is and then colour it in.
I say sorry when I hurt a friend with my words or actions
I can share my skills (such as listening, kindness or courage) to help a friend
I can cheer on a friend when they are using their strength or talent
If a friend makes a mistake, I can accept their apology and forgive them.
When a friend tells me something about their day, I listen carefully
I can encourage a friend trying something new
When a friend wants to play a different game, I can give it a go
I can ask a friend a question about their favourite hobby
I can stay positive when plans with friends change unexpectedly
I can help a friend if they are finding a task in class tricky
I do not blame someone else if I make a mistake, I am honest and admit it
If I don’t understand a conversation or situation, I ask questions
Once complete, students can pair and share their answers with a partner.
Then, go through each statement and ask for class feedback about which foundation the statement belongs to.
Teacher Answers:
Deal with Mistakes
I say sorry when I hurt a friend with my words or actions
If a friend makes a mistake, I can accept their apology and forgive them
I do not blame someone else if I make a mistake, I am honest and admit it
Stay Curious
I can ask a friend a question about their favourite hobby
If I don’t understand a conversation or situation, I ask questions
When a friend tells me something about their day, I listen carefully
Handle Change
I can encourage a friend trying something new
When a friend wants to play a different game, I can give it a go
I can stay positive when plans with friends change unexpectedly
Bring Your Strengths
I can share my skills (such as listening, kindness or courage) to help a friend
I can help a friend if they are finding a task in class tricky
I can cheer on a friend when they are using their strength or talent
Debrief:
Friendships become stronger when we strengthen our friendship foundations. When we have really strong foundations, it helps us to be a better friend.
Lesson Debrief:
Ask students to consider their answers to the following questions:
One friendship foundation I want to focus on this week is….
One action I will take to grow this foundation is ….
Students can share their answers with a partner or with the class.
When we understand what our friendship foundations are and what we can do to develop these foundations, the stronger our friendships become. Apologising, forgiving, and learning from mistakes keeps friendships healthy. Asking questions, listening, and being interested in others helps us understand and connect with our friends. Being flexible and staying positive when plans or situations change makes friendships stronger. Sharing our talents, skills, and positive qualities helps your friends to learn and grow and makes you a better friend too.
