Friendship

1. What is a friend?
2. What "makes" a friend?
3. Whose manners are blooming?
4. Can we compare qualities of characters in children's literature at the beginning of the story and then at the end?
5. What is your imaginary friend like?


Grade level-First grade 

Goals- To instill within children what it means to be a good friend.  To instill within children the qualities of a good friend. 

Timeline- approximately 4-5 class periods 

Vocabulary- friendship, imaginary, friend, respect, caring, manners, kind, polite

Standards-English Language Arts: 
Students comprehend at least four books on the same subject. 
Students produce a response to literature. 
Students produce a narrative account that is autobiographical and narrative. 
Students produce work in at least one literary genre that follows conventions of genre; poetry. 

1. What are the qualities of a good friend? 
a. To discover children's prior knowledge of friendship. 
b. To use prior knowledge to write a response to literature. 

Brainstorm words that answer above question with children. 
Write responses on semantic web

Read the book Corduroy, by Don Freeman. 
Upon finishing ask them how Corduroy and Lisa showed the qualities of being a friend listed on chart. 
Write their responses in a chart. 
Using KidPix have children make a chart split in half with a computer drawn image of Lisa and Corduroy, and label how they were a good friend to each other. 
See example

2. What makes a "F-R-I-E-N-D?" 
a. To learn about acrostic poetry. 

Write the word "friend" in a chart with each letter having its own column. 
Brainstorm words, having to do with friendship that start with each letter. 

Write words discussed in chart. 

F R I E N D
funny rich ice cream excellent nice drive
face real ices end nobody dance
fun run ice skating eternal nothing dog
finest right I exit nowhere doll



Write an example poem using their ideas, such as, 

F is for fun. 
R is for race. 
I is for ice cream. 
E is for excellent. 
N is for nice. 
D is for driving. 


Using the above pattern and completed chart have them complete the pattern with their own words or words from the chart. 
Illustrate poem by either drawing a picture of each word, or of them and a friend doing one of the things listed in their poem. 

3. Whose manners are blooming? 
a. To discuss what good manners are and how we should use them. 


Ask, "What are good manners?" 
Write responses on chart. 

Proper word to say:                    When to use it:

please when I want something
thank you when someone gives me something
excuse me when I want someone's attention
may I when I need permission
you're welcome when someone thanks me



Read, What Do You Say, Dear? by Maurice Sendak. 

Ask them if they want to add anything to the chart. 
Finish chart by asking them when, in real life, they would use the above terms. 

After that, give students the flower worksheet. 
Have them write each of the proper words on each petal. 
In the middle using the chart have them fill in the following sentence: 
I say __________________when___________________. 

For example: 
I say thank you when someone gives me something. 
Have them draw a picture on bottom of them doing what they said. 

4. Can we compare qualities of characters in children's literature at the beginning and at the end ? 

Using some of the following books (there are many others on this topic), web character traits at the beginning of the story and then at the end to see how the character has changed. (See complete bibliography)

Pfister, Marcus. The Rainbow Fish. 
Zolotow, Charlotte. The Hating Book
Joslyn, Sesyle. What Do you Say, Dear? 
Carle, Eric. The Grouchy Ladybug.  
Henkes, Kevin. Jessica. 
Freeman, Don. Corduroy. 

For example, after reading The Rainbow Fish make a semantic web describing characteristics of the rainbow fish at the beginning and then do another one for the end. The completed ones should look similar to the following: 




Beginning of story      End of story

unhappy happy
lots of scales one colorful scale
unfriendly lots of friends
lonely  
selfish  


When finished with first book, see if it can be done with another book, like  The Grouchy Ladybug. 

5. Who is your imaginary friend? 

a. Children will produce a story that is narrative. 

Read Jessica by Kevin Henkes. 
Discuss how Ruthie felt at beginning of story and how she felt at the end. 
Give student worksheet to complete. 
When corrected have them rewrite and draw a picture of themselves and their imaginary friend. 
After that have them make imaginary friends using felt people and different art mediums:  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pfister, Marcus. The Rainbow Fish. New York: North-South Books, Inc.,1992

Zolotow, Charlotte. The Hating Book. New York: HarperCollins Publishers,
1969. 

Joslyn, Sesyle. What Do you Say, Dear? U.S.A.: Addison-Wesley Publishing
Company, 1958. 

Carle, Eric. The Grouchy Ladybug. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1977

Henkes, Kevin. Jessica. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1989

Freeman, Don. Corduroy. New York: Puffin Books, 1968

http://teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-15045.html
This is a web lesson on friendship, with a printable activity worksheet.

http://kotn.ntu.ac.uk/friends.cfm 
This site has stories about friends written by children.

http://stf.sk.ca/teaching_res/library/teach_mat_centre/teach_mat_centre.htm
This site has lesson plans for teachers on friendship.

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