Building Strong Connections

Curriculum Information

Learning Area: Health and Physical Education
Curriculum Level: Level 3 (Year 6 students)
Strand: Relationships with Other People
Achievement Objectives:

• Identify the pressures that can influence interactions with other people and demonstrate basic assertiveness strategies to manage these.
• Describe how their own feelings, beliefs, and actions and those of other people contribute to a sense of self-worth.

The teaching and learning outlined below links to the Health and Physical Education Big Idea: He oranga ngākau, he pikinga waiora — Positive feelings in your heart will raise your sense of self-worth.

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Learning Intentions

• Students will understand the key qualities of respectful friendships.
• Students will identify strategies for building and maintaining healthy friendships.
• Students will reflect on the importance of friendships for wellbeing.

Success Criteria

Students can:

• List characteristics of a good friend.
• Identify ways to handle friendship difficulties respectfully.
• Reflect on a personal action they can take to strengthen a friendship.

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Materials Needed

• Whiteboard and markers
• Chart paper labelled "Good Friend Qualities"
• Printed "Friendship Ingredient Cards" (traits/behaviours)
• Small slips of paper for exit ticket reflection
• Timer/clock

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20-Minute Lesson Flow

1. Warm-Up: Friendship Connections (3 minutes)

• Begin with a quick Whakarongo mai! (listening) activity:
  • Ask students: "When you think of your best friend, what is one word you think of?"
  • Students turn to the person next to them (kōrero ā-hoa) and share a word.
  • Teacher calls on 3-4 pairs to quickly share out loud.

2. Explicit Teaching: What Makes a Good Friend? (5 minutes)

• Use a mini whiteboard brainstorm:
  • Ask: "What are some qualities that make someone a good friend?"
  • Record student ideas around a heart drawn on the board (linking back to whakataukī about positive feelings lifting wellbeing).
• Emphasise:
  • Honesty
  • Respect
  • Being a good listener
  • Kindness
  • Sharing and loyalty
• Tie back ideas to building manaakitanga (care) and whanaungatanga (relationships) — key aspects in te ao Māori and Aotearoa New Zealand contexts.

3. Group Activity: Friendship 'Recipe' (7 minutes)

• Split the class into small groups (5–6 students per group).
• Give each group a set of Friendship Ingredient Cards (each card has a word, e.g., 'Listening', 'Sharing', 'Forgiving', 'Loyalty', 'Patience', etc.).
• Task: In 3 minutes, groups choose five 'ingredients' they believe are essential for a true friendship and paste them onto a “Friendship Recipe” poster.
• Quick 1-minute group presentations: one spokesperson per group shares their top 1–2 friendship ingredients and why.

Scaffolding Tip for Teachers: Have spare cards that list some slightly challenging words to promote conversation around ideas like 'boundaries' and 'empathy'.

4. Reflection: Personal Action Step (4 minutes)

• Individual reflection (quiet work): Each student writes on a slip of paper:

  "One thing I will do this week to be a stronger friend is..."

• Students hand these in as an 'exit ticket' and can even stick them on a friendship tree display if you have one started.

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Key Competencies Developed

• Relating to others: Students discuss, negotiate, and respect different ideas about friendship.
• Managing self: Students identify personal goals for being a better friend.
• Thinking: Students reflect critically on which traits are most important and why.

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Final Notes for Teacher

• Extension idea: Create a "Friendship Wall" in the classroom where students can anonymously leave positive notes for friends throughout the week.
• Differentiation:
  • Support students who need it by offering sentence starters during the reflection (“I can be a good friend by…”).
  • Encourage more capable students to think about complex friendship dilemmas and strategies for managing them.

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💡 "Friendships are the bridges we build that hold us steady. When we teach tamariki how to build stronger bridges, we teach them resilience for life."

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Would you also like an optional follow-up lesson that involves a creative poster challenge using whakataukī about friendship from te ao Māori?