Good friends can make you feel happy and loved, while bad friends may disappoint you and make you sad. But, being a good friend doesn’t just mean having a good time. Good friends are kind, keep promises, tell the truth, respect differences, and cooperate, among other traits.
In this making and keeping friends activity, students will sort friendship traits based on whether they describe a good or a bad friend.
Recommended Grade Level: Elementary and Middle School
SEL Skill(s): Communication, Social Initiation
Duration: 30 minutes
Materials:
Making and Keeping Friends Activity Instructions
In this activity, students will cut out the statement strips and mix them up on their desk. Students will then read each statement strip. If they think the statement describes a good friend, they should glue it into the “GOOD” box. If they think that it describes a bad friend, they should glue the statement into the “BAD” box.
Make this activity more active for kinesthetic learners!
Set up two buckets or trash cans to act as basketball goals, one labeled GOOD FRIEND and one labeled BAD FRIEND. In this version of the activity, the educator will read statements out loud. Have students take turns deciding whether the statement describes a good friend or bad friend, and then they’ll get to throw a ball into the respective basket. Students should still glue the statement to the correct column on their worksheet to have it for reference.
Extension Activity: Using the Good Friends printable, students will draw how they can be a good friend in different situations. If your kids really aren’t the drawing type, you could have them write some ideas.
