Activity 1: (20 minutes) A FRIEND IS…

Friends and connections with others are important to our emotional well-being.

Read Your Alien, by Tammy Sauer or watch the read-aloud video, “Your Alien – a read out loud story book” by Northern Bright Bookshelf. As you read the book, have the children look for context clues in the illustrations that help them understand what the alien is feeling throughout the book that may not be expressed in the words. Note that the last page shows a different kind of connection that makes the boy happy. Look for context clues in the illustration (the shadow of his parents) that illustrate another important connection. After you read the book, encourage the children to recall all the ways the little boy was a good friend to the alien, and have them share times when they were a good friend to someone else.

Share the Friends and Connection slideshow presentation with the children and ask each one of them to relate something that they love to do with their friends.

Activity 2: (10 minutes) MAKING FRIENDS

Read Peanut Butter and Cupcake, by Terry Border or watch the read-aloud video, “Peanut Butter and Cupcake //A READ ALOUD” by ABC Read to ME. While reading the story, encourage the students to sing or chant the words that Peanut Butter repeats to each new friend. You can make up your own tune, or sing the words to a familiar song such as “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star.”  If possible, hold the book, or cover the page that reveals the new friend until after you have sung the welcome song.

Talk about all the different ways that Peanut Butter tried to engage the other friends in the story.

• Who was his first friend?
• How did they become friends?
• Why did Peanut Butter want to find a friend?

Brainstorm strategies for making new friends such as:

• Saying hello
• Inviting someone to play
• Offering help or sharing
• Listening

Activity 3: (15 minutes) PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY PARTNERS

To Make Peanut Butter and Jelly Lanyards:

1. Make several copies of the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – one per student.
2. Cut out the sandwiches and slip them into sandwich sized resealable plastic bags.
3. Place a small piece of tape on both sides of the bag in the middle, right below the zippered closure.
4. Punch a hole through the taped section of the bags.
5. Slip a 36” piece of yarn or ribbon through the hole and tie the loose ends into a knot to create a sandwich lanyard. Use purple ribbon on the jelly sandwiches, and brown ribbon on the peanut butter sandwiches, to make it easy to help kids find a partner from across the room.

Talk about how when you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it takes two sides or partners to get the job done. Peanut butter always has a jelly partner, and jelly always has a peanut butter partner. Create the peanut butter and jelly lanyards, and give each student a lanyard so that each child with a peanut butter lanyard is paired with a child with a jelly lanyard. (If you have an odd number of students, you can be the other pair.)

Repeat the following chant while students move around the room. When you say “greet your friend” have them find a partner, and say “hello” as directed by the chant (see below). Encourage the children to high-five, bump fists, shake hands, wave, etc., to their new partner and introduce themselves, and tell their partner something they like to do. Repeat multiple times, encouraging children to choose a new partner each time until the children have been able to partner with most of the children in the class.

Peanut Butter Chant
Peanut Butter, Marmalade and Jam,
Greet your friend as __________ as you can.

Insert high, low, fast, slow, opera-style, like an alien, make your voice sound like you are sliding down a slide, etc. You can see it demonstrated here.

Extend the fun by giving all the kids with peanut butter lanyards a tone bar, and all the kids with a jelly lanyard a mallet (or other musical instrument that requires 2 parts, like a triangle). When they get together, they can play music together – allow time for each pair to switch so that they each get a turn to use the mallet.

Encourage the children to reflect on the new friends that they met today.

Activity 4: (10 minutes) HOW TO BE A GOOD FRIEND

Sometimes good friends don’t play well together. It’s important to know how to make and keep good friends. Discuss how children can learn to repair friendships.

• Describe a time when you didn’t get along with their friends.
• What did you do?
• What did the friend do?
• How did you become good friends again?

Here are some ideas of things children can do when they are having friend trouble:

• Tell your friend you want to be friends again.
• Talk about the problem: Tell them what happened, then tell them how you felt about it: “When ______, I felt __________.”
• Apologize for your part.
• Ask how you can make things better.
• Remember that friends have different experiences and feelings, so you both can be “right” even if you see things differently.

Use 2 puppets to role play different friendship scenarios. Have the children help the puppets resolve differences and restore their relationship by using the skills you have discussed:

• One friend doesn’t want to play with the other.
• One friend said something hurtful to the other.
• One friend took the other’s toy without asking.
• One friend tags another in a game of tag, but the friend who got tagged denies they got tagged, and won’t take their turn.
• One friend has all the markers and the other wants to color, too.
• One friend decides to sit by a different friend at lunch.

Activity 5: (15 minutes) FRIENDSHIP MURAL

Place several plates filled with different colors of paint on a table. Tape a large sheet of butcher paper to another table or to the wall. Play some fun “friends” songs in the background (see suggestions below). Invite 2 children to work together at a time. Have each child choose their favorite color, and dip their hands into the paint, and rub their hands together so that there is paint on both palms. Have them press their hands onto the butcher paper; each child’s handprints should be about one foot apart. Next, dip their hands into the same paint color they chose the first time. This time, have them give their friend a handshake or high five and mix the paint colors on their hands. Have them press their new color between or next to their first hand prints. Talk about how, working together, they have created something new and beautiful.

Friendship song suggestions:
The Sharing Song, Raffi
You’ve Got a Friend in Me, Randy Newman
I’m Me and You’re You, Laurie Berkner
Friends Help Each Other, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood