Healthy Friendships
It’s important to know what healthy friendships look like. It helps us be a good friend and find good friends.
Grade Level: 6-12
Character Skills
- Respect
- Caring
SEL Skills
- Self-Awareness
- Relationship Skills
Academic Skills
- Curiosity and Passion
Definitions
Respect
- Follow the Golden Rule.
- Be accepting of differences.
- Be courteous to others.
- Deal peacefully with anger, insults, and disagreements.
- Be considerate of others’ feelings.
Caring
- Be kind.
- Be compassionate.
- Express gratitude.
- Forgive others.
Self-Awareness
Identify and understand emotions, values, attitudes, motivations, mindsets, and personal attributes.
Relationship Skills
Create positive relationships and meaningful connections with family members, classmates, and teachers.
Curiosity and Passion
Enthusiastic to understand more about themselves, others, and the world around them.
Share This Activity
Students will read a poem about friendship and then share the elements of a good friendship. Then, they will reflect and compare those elements to their own friendships.
Materials/Preparation
- Poem (Alabi, A. 2017. My True Friend. FamilyFriendPoems. FFP Inc).
- Chart paper/markers or an online word cloud tool
Instructions
- Read the poem, My True Friend.
- Ask students to highlight portions of the poem that best describes a good, healthy friendship.
- In small groups or a large group, invite students to share the words they highlighted in the poem.
- Write the words on chart paper or in an online word cloud tool.
Student Reflection
- Reflect on the words collected on the chart paper or word cloud.
- What do these aspects of friendship have in common?
- Consider your friendships. Do you represent the words we collected? Do your friends?
- How could you change your behavior to improve or develop friendships?
My True Friend
by Abimbola T. Alabi
You always answer when I call
And help me up if I should fall,
But you never complain at all,
My true friend.
You confront me when I am wrong
But will never scold me for long,
Instead, you try to keep me strong,
My true friend.
You know the funny things to say
To make me laugh my fears away.
Like the sun, you brighten my day,
My true friend.
You see in me gifts I deny
And urge me to give things a try.
You spread for me my wings to fly,
My true friend.
You always perceive what I need
And offer it before I plead.
Just like a book, my mind you read,
My true friend.
You value little things I do
But won’t brag of what you do too.
How can I ever repay you,
My true friend?
And greatest of all I have found
When times are tough and I’m down,
You are the one who sticks around,
My true friend.
