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Building Strong Friendships

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Building Strong Friendships

Read the friendship toolkit and scenarios. For written questions, explain your thinking; there can be more than one helpful response.

Friendship toolkit

Strong friendships grow through respect, trust, kindness and give-and-take. Active listening means giving someone your attention, letting them finish, and checking you have understood. You can disagree without being unkind. A fair solution considers everyone’s needs. Friends also respect boundaries: anyone can say no, change their mind or ask for space. If a friendship problem feels unsafe or too big to manage, talk to a trusted adult.

Read the situations

At lunchtime, Maia notices that Sione is standing alone. Maia asks, “Would you like to join our game, or would you rather have some quiet time?” Sione joins for a while, then says she wants to sit and talk instead. Maia’s group agrees to take turns choosing what to do. Later, Maia and her friend Mei disagree about which idea to use for a group project. Maia says, “I see it differently. Can you tell me why your idea matters to you?” They listen to each other and combine parts of both ideas. When Mei shares something personal, Maia asks whether he wants advice or just someone to listen.

1.Which action in the lunchtime situation shows respect for Sione’s choice?

Maia decides what Sione should do.
Maia offers a choice and accepts Sione’s answer.
The group expects Sione to play the whole time.
Maia ignores Sione’s request to talk.

2.Name two friendship skills Maia and the group use in the situations. Give one detail from the story for each skill.

3.Mei says, “I don’t want advice right now.” What is a respectful response Maia could give?

Try a friendship problem-solving plan

Use this sequence when a disagreement comes up: pause and keep your words respectful; hear each person’s view; suggest options; agree on a fair next step; check in afterwards. If someone is being pressured, threatened or repeatedly hurt, involve a trusted adult rather than trying to solve it alone.

4.Two friends both want to choose the game at lunchtime. Write one fair solution and explain why it considers both people.

5.A friend tells you to keep a secret, but the secret is that someone may get hurt. What is the safest next step?

Promise to keep it secret no matter what.
Tell a trusted adult who can help keep people safe.
Post about it online so others can decide.
Ignore it and hope it goes away.

6.A group chat keeps making jokes about one person after they have asked for it to stop. Identify one respectful action you could take and one person you could ask for support.

7.True or false: Being a good friend means agreeing with everything your friend says.

TrueFalse

8.Complete the sentence with two actions: “When someone is speaking, I can show I’m listening by and .”

9.Imagine you want some time alone, but a friend keeps asking you to join in. Write a kind, clear boundary you could set and what you might suggest for later.

10.Choose one friendship skill from the toolkit. Describe a realistic way to use it this week, without naming anyone.