Being a Good Friend

Lesson Overview

Duration: 57 minutes
Class Size: 23 Kindergarten Students
Curriculum Area: Health and Physical Education (Foundation Level)

Learning Intentions:
Students will learn about the qualities of a good friend.

Success Criteria:
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Identify qualities of a good friend.
• Demonstrate ways to be caring, inclusive, and respectful.

Outcomes:

• PDe-3: Communicates ways to be caring, inclusive, and respectful of others.
• PDe-10: Uses interpersonal skills to effectively interact with others.

Links to Previous Lesson:
In the previous lesson, students explored various emotions and how they affect themselves and others. In this lesson, we'll use this understanding to recognise how emotions play a key role in developing and maintaining friendships.

Lesson Activities

Introduction (10 minutes)

Recap on Emotions:
Begin by gathering students in a circle on the classroom floor. Ask them to think of the "Emotion Faces" explored in the last lesson. Invite a few students to demonstrate an emotion by showing it on their face or with body language. Encourage the class to guess the emotion. Discuss how recognising emotions can help us understand friends better.

Transition to Friendship:
Explain to students that, just like we have different feelings, we also have qualities that make us good friends. Today, we'll learn about these qualities.

Discussion (10 minutes)

Discuss with students:

• What are some ways to show we care about our friends?
• How can we respect our friends' emotions and feelings?
• Ask students to share stories or examples when they felt someone was a good friend to them.

Activity (20 minutes)

Role-Playing Scenarios:
Divide students into small groups and hand out role-play cards depicting different friendship scenarios (e.g., inviting someone to play, sharing toys, comforting a friend who is sad). Each group will act out their scenario, demonstrating how to be a good friend.

Create a "Friendship Flower":
Hand out a template of a flower with a circle for the centre and several blank petals. Ask each student to think of a quality of a good friend (e.g., kind, helpful, listens) and write or draw this quality on a petal. Once finished, assist students in assembling their flowers on a display board.

Interactive Game (15 minutes)

Friendship Bingo:
Distribute Friendship Bingo cards, each featuring friendly behaviours (e.g., "shares toys," "says please," "helps a friend"). Students mingle around the room and find classmates who demonstrate these behaviours, marking off their bingo cards as they go.

Conclusion (5 minutes)

Recap what students have learned about being good friends:

• Highlight the importance of being kind, fair, and respectful.
• Gather students in a circle and sing the song "Make New Friends" together, reinforcing the lesson's key messages.

Differentiation Strategies

• Use visual aids and gesture support for EAL/D students to assist with comprehension.
• Offer additional movement breaks or modified role-play opportunities for ADHD students.

Assessment

Formative: Observe students’ engagement during discussions and activities to gauge understanding and participation.

Summative: Evaluate completed Friendship Flowers for students’ ability to identify and articulate qualities of good friendship.

Materials

• Emotion Faces from previous lesson
• Role-play scenario cards
• Friendship Flower templates
• Materials to create a display board
• Friendship Bingo cards

This engaging and interactive lesson plan aligns with the Australian Curriculum for Kindergarten Health and Physical Education, fostering interpersonal skills and a supportive classroom environment through the exploration of friendship.