Read Works
Cool to Be Kind
Make a connection between empathy and bullying with a reading passage that has readers thinking about other people's feelings. After reading, learners respond to ten reading comprehension questions involving short answer and multiple...
Penguin Books
Wonder in the Classroom
Would you rather be right, or would you rather be kind? A novel unit based on R.J. Palacio's Wonder focuses on the need to be kind to others and to accept their differences. As learners read the book, they discuss the themes of family...
Bully Free Systems
Bully Free Lesson Plans—Kindergarten
Keep bullying away with the help of two lessons that focus on the golden rule and reporting hurtful behavior. Both lessons incorporate a classroom meeting that encourages an open dialogue about making good choices at school. Finger...
Social Skills Central
Photo Cartoons: Being Polite
Have you ever been left out of plans your friends were discussing? This photo cartoon will help your learners recognize that being polite can go beyond just saying please and thank you by making sure others feel included and welcomed.
Museum of Disability
Taking Visual Impairment to School
What is the world like when you can't see, or when your vision is impaired? Learn about how Lisa communicates with the world around her with Taking Visual Impairment to School by Rita Whitman Steingold. Learners answer discussion...
Museum of Disability
Stand in My Shoes
Stand in My Shoes, a story by Bob Sornson, is an effective way to teach young learners about empathy and making friends. Once pupils read through the story, they answer a series of discussion questions and complete reading activities...
Cru High School
Games / Icebreakers
Twenty-three, fun-filled activities make up a list of icebreakers designed to familiarize class members with one another, and add a sense of community to the classroom.
Bully Free Systems
Bully Free Lesson Plans—Fourth Grade
Two lessons detail what do if you are or see someone being bullied. The Four-Step STOP method features an assertive way to make school a bully-free zone. Tips offer advice to be a helpful bystander. A parent or guardian chat bridges the...
Ashoka
A Toolkit for Promoting Empathy in Schools
Instill kindness with a unit all about empathy. Lessons and activities follow a prepare, engage, reflect, and action sequence. Learning experiences include making the classroom a safe environment, peer-invented handshakes, discussions...
Nemours KidsHealth
Getting Along: Grades K-2
Boost social awareness with two activities focusing on getting along. In the first activity, scholars brainstorm ways to get along with their classmates and create four rules for the classroom. The second activity asks pupils to track...
Curated OER
The Rainbow Fish
Students listen to The Rainbow Fish and discuss the meanings of friendship. This is a wonderful way to open up the school year on the very first day of school. After the story, students make a paper chain with all of their names linked...
Curated OER
The Rainbow Fish
Students are read a book about friendship. They create a friendship chain out of construction paper. They discover the importance of friends in school.
Curated OER
The Frienship Fish -- Rainbow Fish Book Activity
Students are read "The Rainbow Fish". They discuss how important friendship is and list qualities they want in a good friend. They create a giant fish with each child's quality for the class to view.
Prestwick House
Of Mice and Men
What is Lennie Small's dream job? What's the future George imagines? Readers of Of Mice and Men must identify character and events from John Steinbeck's novella about the friendship of two California migrant workers.
Curated OER
Pre-reading for Julius Caesar
Students examine friendship and leadership by creating "friendship committees" to develop a class friendship constitution. Committees list qualities/traits of a friend, as well as friendship infractions. These committees join together...
Curated OER
Fr ie n d s h ip, Self-esteem
Students brainstorm examples of activities that show friendship and illustrate them and explain below each picture what is happening. They hear a poem about friendship, watch a commercial about it, write a book about it and now they are...
Curated OER
True Friends
Fourth graders examine qualities of friendship. In this friendship lesson, 4th graders investigate responsible decisions and healthy relationships. Students will role-play relationship situations.
Curated OER
How to Be a Good Friend
Pupils brainstorm and illustrate the dos and don'ts of friendship as a book or classroom display. They discuss how friendships work and the rules people follow to make them work.
Curated OER
Small Group Counseling
Students are introduced to the concept of self-esteem and discuss how it is important in friendships. In groups, they counsel one another to determine how one's personal behavior affects the others in their group. They discover the...
Curated OER
The Rainbow Fish
Students identify vocabulary words and create their own paper rainbow fish. For this 1st - 2nd grade lesson plan, students identify vocabulary words such as sharing and friendship. Using The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister for...
Curated OER
When Randolph Turned Rotten
Students explore friendship by reading a book with their classmates. In this human relationship instructional activity, students read the story When Randolph Turned Rotten, and discuss the main character's relationships as well as the...
Curated OER
Summer Activities
Students practice saying no to their friends in a role play situation. In this friends lesson plan, students discuss what valuable friendship is, and that it is ok to say no to a friend.
Curated OER
Getting to Know You
Students demonstrate the concept of friendship. In this character education lesson, students read the book Best Friends and discuss what friendship means. Students create a picture book about their likes and dislikes.
Curated OER
Author's Corner
Second graders read a picture book at a Web site about a bunny who solves a problem and becomes friends with a squirrel. Students then discuss story with classmates, brainstorm ideas for their own stories about friendship, and read the...