Friendship & Feelings

For the month of January & into February we will be focusing on friendship and feelings. 

In January, we started off the unit by discussing what good friends are and how you can be a good friend. We discussed that good friends play together and work together, good friends cooperate, take turns and share, and good friends are kind to one another. Then we discussed what safe activities we can play at school with our friends. Some ideas were...

1. We can play outside with our friends. We can climb, swing, run and play safe games.

2. We  can play inside with our friends. We can play blocks, puzzles, Lego and games. 

3. We can work in groups with our friends. Our friends can help us with our school work.

4. We can read with our friends during Daily 5. 

The next day, we discussed what responsibility means. We are responsible for different things at home and at school. 

Then, we did an activity called "The Wrinkled Heart." We started off the class sitting in a circle. We shared all the things we say that make people feel good or things that may hurt others feelings. We had a large red heart that we passed around. We discussed all the things that hurt us and folded the corners. Once the heart was all folded we shared all the things that make us feel good and unfolded the heart. Once we were finished we saw that we pressed out all the winkles, except, of course, for the fact that the wrinkles could still be seen even though the heart was unfolded. We discussed how we have wrinkles in our hearts from hurtful things that may have happened in our life and that the wrinkles last forever, which is why we need to think about our actions and be responsible.

Throughout the rest of the month we discussed using good manners, personal space, tattling vs. telling, sharing/taking turns and communicating appropriately.