KEY INFORMATION

Recommended age group: 7–11
Time required: one 45–60 minute session
Equipment: pens, pencils.


ACTIVITY IDEA

These activities can be completed with in the classroom or at home.

Definitions

Friendship

  • Friendly feelings between people, being kind and helpful. A friend is a person you like and who likes you. (Oxford School Dictionary)
  • This value is at the heart of the Olympic Movement. It encourages us to see sport as an instrument for mutual understanding between individuals, and between people all over the world. (International Olympic Committee)

Part 1

  1. The first part to friendship is having a mutual level of respect. Use the Say Hello activity guide and play its active game of introductions to get the group moving and interacting with each other. Ensure every pupil has the chance to introduce themselves. If running the activity with a small group/individual children, adapt the starter, instead coming up with your own unique (and active) hello handshake to start the lesson. 
  2. After the activity ask the group to briefly discuss what they think friendship means, take a couple of examples, then provide the group with your own definition.

Part 2

  1. Use the Good friend/Bad friend activity guide, to explore different scenarios related to friendship and encourage pupils to think how positive relationships are displayed.
  2. Now that the group have got an understanding of what we mean by friendship, encourage them to start to define the qualities of friendship. Ask the pupils to discuss what qualities make a good friend with a partner/small group. For example, someone who listens to your questions when playing in the playground.  Be prepared to give examples.
  3. During discussions hand out the Super Friend template activity sheet to each young person. Ask pupils to use this template to get create, draw and annotate important qualities and superpowers of friendship.
  4. Encourage the group to share some of these examples of friendship qualities.

Part 3

  1. Use the Find a Friend activity sheet to gage pupils individual understanding of the importance of different qualities in friendship. This active task encourages pupils to reflect on the qualities of friendship and the vocabulary they have built.
  2. Reflect on the game, asking pupils for a few examples of their top friendship qualities, and the new qualities they saw when playing the game.

Key learnings

Pupils will understand that various qualities can contribute to good friendship. Ensure pupils understand that while not everyone has the same qualities, or thinks about friendship in the same way, they can still all be a good friend.

EXTENSION

  • As a homework/extension task ask pupils to complete their Super Friend template activity sheets, working with parents/guardians as appropriate.
  • Depending on ability, pupils should complete the following tasks.
    • Give the superhero a name.
    • Add two more friendship superpowers to their friend template.
    • Identify (or add) two friendship qualities/powers they think their super friend might have learnt from their parents or guardian and one they may have learnt from their friends.
    • Next to the friendship qualities they have already written down add examples of why those qualities are important.
    • Create a short paragraph to introduce and describe the superhero.