Friendship

Friendship- what is it? 

Well, it depends on who you ask. A friendship can be so many different things to so many different people. I am thankful to have a lot of people in my life whom I call my friends - and no two friendships are the same! I have my friends who are an extension of my family, they are my family really. I have friends who I don't talk to often, but we can call each other at any given moment, for any reason, and it's like we just talked yesterday! There are friends who like to have fun, but don't want to be the one I call when I need a favor. There are the friends who I don't ever have I ask a favor of, because they already know what I need and have already offered to do it or have already done it. The friends I wish I had more time for and the friends I have drifted apart from over the years. There are SO many types of friendship! They all grow and change over time based on the experiences you have (or don't have) with them. 

So, as I try to teach these young girls about friendship this week, I find myself thinking, "how do I teach about something that is so individual, so full of change and so complicated"?  I think this week is the start, but really we will continue working on learning what "friendship" is for the next, well... forever.

I model what it is to be a friend day in and day out, I help them find the language to use while communicating to each other and help them discover what type of qualities to look for in a friend. I will guide them to have self respect and respect of others, to listen, to care, to be honest and loving. I guess I could go on and on about this... but instead, I will just post some pictures of what we actually did last week!

I started out on Monday morning asking the girls these questions:

Then we brainstormed things we can do to be a good friend, Kinsley had a lot  of good ideas... Emma and Avery contributed "no hitting"!

We made a Friendship Chain! 

Each strip of paper has their name on one side and one thing they can do to be a good friend on the other side. We linked the strips all together and hung it up as a reminder to ourselves of what it means to be a good friend! 

We read some books about friends, about sharing, and about being good listeners the next day. We sang "The More We Get Together" and we practiced  our new friendship skills all day! We also made Friendship Bracelets! 

Friends like to keep each other company too, espicially over "coffee"! 

Friendship is drinking hot cocoa together and telling stories! 

We spent one day talking about how each if us is different and how it's a good thing to be unique. We read the book Chrysanthemum, which has a ton of examples of how not to treat our friends, but also how to help a friend who might have hurt feelings. 

After the story, we had Chrysanthemum's heart in our hands and reviewed some of the mean things that were said to her. Each time, crumpling her heart a little more. Then we practiced being a good friend and her heart unfolded little by little. We put band-aides on her heart to help heal her too (good fine motor skills to open and stick those band-aides)! 

The girls really connected with this story and the heart activity following the book helped to put a visual to the name calling and was a great way to discuss some of the behaviors we saw in the book. 

Cullen didn't have school on Friday so he was able to get in on our Rainbow Fish day! We started by singing the song "A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea" and then read our book! After the book, each of the kids made their own "rainbow fish". I didn't expect them to take so much time working on their project, but it took them a LONG time! It was the only project we did that day! I made sure not to rush them, as they were doing their very best work! :)

As the days go on, I will continue to help the kiddos remember what it means to be a good friend. I will be able to reference back to some of these activities and books as reminders of what it means to be kind and to be a good friend. I know they will remember about the little mouse Chrysanthemum and The Rainbow Fish!