IU33 Friends Lower Primary - Blake Education

IU33 ■ Friends Lower Primary

Blake’s Topic Bank

Friends by Kara Louise Munn

Each integrated unit contains: ■

6 pages of teaching notes in an integrated teaching sequence ■ 10 practical blackline masters ■ National Profile outcomes ■ A useful resource list

Friends by Kara Louise Munn

LOWER PRIMARY Learning Area Focus Studies of Society and Environment Topic This unit is all about friends. It is a good topic to introduce at the beginning of the school year when students are first getting to know each other. It may also be helpful if you are welcoming a child from a culture that is different to the one most of the class is familiar with, or if a child with special needs is joining your class. While you probably do not need to deal with these issues specifically, it is important for students to learn to accept the many different children they meet.

National Profile Outcomes

Resources Teacher Resources

Students will: ■ SOSE 2.9 Describe the roles and responsibilities of friends. ■ SOSE 2.11 Describe the ways that people co-operate with and depend on each other in their work. ■ SOSE 2.14 Identify why there are limitations on what friends can ask each other to do. ■ English 2.1 Interact confidently in structured and spontaneous situations, with adults and peers. ■ English 2.4 Speak and listen in ways that help communication with peers in the playground and in the classroom. ■ Mathematics 2.18 Choose the correct physical attribute when comparing and measuring things. ■ Mathematics 2.19 Directly and indirectly compare lengths. ■ Health and PE 2.6 Describe the physical activities and games people choose for recreation. ■ Arts 2.4, 2.9, 2.14, 2.19, 2.23 Respond to art work done by their peers.

Tanya Dalgleish, Ready-to-Go Self-Esteem, Blake Education.

Factual Books Powell, Who Are Your Friends?, Wayland.

Picture Story Books Pamela Allen, Herbert and Harry, Puffin. Bunnett and Salhoff, Friends in the Park, Checkerboard. Eric Carle, The Bad Tempered Ladybird, Penguin. Terry Denton, Felix and Alexander, Oxford University Press. Finch, The Little Red Hen and the Grain of Wheat, Barefoot. A A Milne, Winnie the Pooh, Methuen (illustrations by E H Shepard). Marcus Pfister, The Rainbow Fish, North South. Margaret Wild, The Very Best of Friends, Margaret Hamilton.

© Blake Education – Friends Integrated Unit 1

Friends Teaching notes

Reading

What is a friend?

Read a series of A A Milne’s stories about Winnie the Pooh to students. Try to find a copy with E H Shepard’s original illustrations.

Brainstorm

Follow your friend

Read students a good quality version of The Little Red Hen. A well illustrated version is listed in the Resources. If you are unable to find a copy of the book, you can easily tell the story yourself or use simple finger puppets. Then ask students to roleplay the story. Choose one student to be the little red hen and other students to be her friends. Either choose one student to be the narrator or take this role for yourself. Give students simple name tags or headbands so that the audience knows who is playing whom. Have characters say each spoken section of the text. At its completion, ask students what the little red hen learned about her friends. Were they true friends? Would you like to have friends like that? Have a brainstorming session on what makes a good friend. Record students’ responses on the board or chart paper.

This game teaches students about the trust that exists between two friends. Take the class outside and have students work in pairs. Blindfold one student in each pair. Have the other student guide their friend around a chosen track. The track might take students around trees or up and down paths. The blindfolded student must listen for the sound of their friend and follow their directions. Then have students swap roles.

Funny Friends book Have each student fold a piece of paper into three equal sections. In the top section students draw the head of a ‘friend’—it can be as funny as they like. In the middle section, have students draw the body and arms, and in the lower section, the legs. Ask students to draw in the center of the page and to make sure the area where the body parts cross the fold lines is about 5 cm wide. Then collect all of the funny friends and place them in a pile. Use a guillotine to cut the pages along the fold lines. Make a cover for your Funny Friends book and staple the pages together. As students turn the pages they can mix and match everyone’s heads, bodies and legs to make up their own funny friends.

A to Z Write the letters from A to Z down one side of a large piece of chart paper. Ask students to think of some words that describe a friend. Some examples include: A always there B buddy C companion F forgiving G grateful H helpful S sensible T trustworthy, and so on… Divide your class into small groups and provide each group with an enlarged copy of BLM 1. Ask each group to work on their own ‘friendly’ A to Z.

Five funny friends Sing the song ‘Five little ducks went out one day.’ Substitute the following words: ■ ‘funny friends’ for ‘little ducks’ ■ ‘my mother’ for ‘mother duck’ ■ ‘come back, come back’ for ‘quack quack quack quack’ or have students make up their own version.

Feeling with friends Have a discussion with students about how they feel when they are with their friends. Then provide each student with a copy of BLM 2 and ask them to colour in the faces that reflect the way they feel when they are with friends.


Making a foil ‘f’

Groups of this and that

Look at the way the letter ‘f’ is formed. Have students use their fingers to draw an f in the air and on the carpet. Make a word bank of all the words students can think of that start with f. Give each student a piece of aluminium foil about 30 cm by 30 cm. Show them how to make their own foil f by tearing off pieces of foil and scrunching them into the shape of an f. Students will need to make two pieces—the curved back piece and the cross piece— that can then be twisted together.

This activity helps students understand the importance of accepting their peers’ similarities and differences. Send students out to lunch in groups, for example: ■ all those with brothers can go out to lunch ■ all those who are Jewish can go out to lunch ■ all those who have brown hair can go out to lunch ■ all those who use a wheelchair can go out to lunch ■ all those who speak Greek can go out to lunch ■ all those who have grandparents living at home can go out to lunch. Groups may consist of just one student. It is essential that these students feel important and valued for their differences, rather than isolated and neglected.

The ‘i before e’ rule Teach students the spelling rule ‘i before e except after c.’ Make a word bank of words that comply with this rule. You will need to give students considerable guidance with this activity. Its main aim is to help them remember the spelling of ‘friend’. You may prefer to make a word bank of words ending in ‘end’ and encourage students to remember the spelling in this way. Use BLM 3 to help students make either or both word banks.

Paper chains Have each student write their own name on five pieces of coloured paper, 2 cm wide by 10 cm long. Show students how to use glue on one end of the paper and make it into a circle or link. Then have students link all their pieces of paper together into one long paper chain of friendship.

Who are my friends? Give me your hand Have students trace around the hand of one of their friends. Make sure that all students are considered friends and have their hands traced. You could include students from other classes, or each student could draw a name out of a hat and friends could be assigned in that way. After students have traced their friend’s hand, have them think of five qualities that make this person a good friend. Ask students to write each quality in one of the fingers and the student’s name in the palm of the hand. Display all the hands on the classroom wall.

Friends in a photo Provide each student with a copy of BLM 4. Have students choose three friends. Students should then use their problem-solving skills to think up a variety of ways in which three people can be arranged for a photo, given that there are three seats in a row. Ask students to draw their friends in each combination they can think of. There are six possible combinations.

Cross-cultural friends Teach students a song or some common phrases in a language other than English. Ideally you should choose a language spoken by one of your students. Ask parents or community members for help if you need it. Hold a discussion about the festivals or celebrations that are important to your students. Invite them to bring in photos and share memories of these events.

Paper doll chain Talk with students about how friends can be of any age or nationality. Ask students if they have friends who live overseas or interstate. Ask students if they have any friends that are older than they are—they could be a few years older, or adults. Provide students with copies of BLM 5 and ask them to follow the directions to make a paper doll chain of favourite friends.


What can you do with friends?

Becoming a friend Have students do a role-play of approaching a new student in the playground. How can they let him or her know that they want to be friends? What could they do to help the new student feel welcome and settled in their new environment?

Class photo album Ask students to bring in a photo of themselves having fun with a friend. Help each student write a recount of the day the photo was taken. The recount should begin with an introduction that sets the scene. This should be followed by details about the day, in the order they happened. Publish the recounts on the computer and display them next to the photos.

Weaving a web of friends Have students sit in a circle. Give one student a ball of wool. The student must roll the ball to a friend while keeping hold of the end of the wool, and then say why this person makes a good friend. The second student then holds onto the wool, rolls the ball towards another friend and says why this person is such a good friend. As the ball of wool is rolled from one student to another, it makes a web shape on the floor.

A friend lets you say no Ask students to share memories of times when their friends have asked them to do things that they knew were wrong, or just did not want to do. Talk with students about the problems that can arise and how you can overcome them. Role-play some situations in which it is important to say no to a friend. Some ideas for the role-play include students asking their friends to: ■ cross the road without going to the pedestrian crossing ■ eat part of someone else’s lunch ■ play a game when they feel like being quiet ■ take money that has been left on a table.

Our faithful canine friends Ask students why a dog might be considered to be a person’s friend. Go through the list of friendly qualities made earlier and ask students which ones apply to pet dogs. What qualities are dogs unable to provide? Why are dogs considered to be human’s best friend rather than the other domestic animals we keep as pets?

Make a game Look at board games like Monopoly and Snakes and Ladders. Look at the way the board is arranged and the instructions. Provide students with copies of BLM 6 and have them make their own board game called ‘Find a Friend’. Students have to number the spaces and add instructions for the players. Some examples might include: ‘You ignored a friend. Go back 2 spaces’ or ‘Congratulations! You helped a new student at line-up time. Go ahead 5 spaces.’ Provide students with dice and give them time to play each other’s games.

Friendship flowers Provide students with copies of BLM 7, plain card, some drinking straws and coloured pencils or felttip pens. Have students make a bunch of ‘friendship flowers’ to give to friends in the class. They can use the shape on the BLM as a template for making as many flowers as they want. Help students decorate their flowers and write messages to their friends. Attach the straws as stems so students can hold what looks like a real bunch of flowers. © Blake Education – Friends Integrated Unit 4

Ask parent helpers to make lots of simple sandwiches—vegemite and peanut butter are usually popular and you could include fairy bread (bread and butter sprinkled with hundreds and thousands). Some home-made popcorn, cut-up fruit and something to drink should fill everyone up. Ask students to bring a picnic rug, their sunglasses, sunscreen and hat. Play some outdoor games and allow time for lots of interaction. Take photos of the event. When you return to school, display them and have students add captions, so that everyone can remember the fun day they had with their friends.

Class post office Have students write letters to friends who do not live near the school. Make sure that students remember to write the date and their address at the top of the page. Remind students to start the letter with ‘Dear …’ and to sign their name at the end. Help students to address the envelope correctly. Depending on where your school is you might like to walk to the Post Office or a post box to post the letters. Encourage students to tell the class if they receive any return letters from their friends. Set up a class letterbox where students can write to other students in the room. Remind students that it is polite to reply promptly to letters. If students choose to write to you, make sure you reply.

My body, your body Provide students with copies of BLM 8 and paddle pop sticks or other readily available measuring tools. Ask students to measure each part of the body shown on the BLM and to record the results. Students should then compare their own body measurements with their friends’. Encourage students to use phrases such as ‘longer than’, ‘shorter than’, ‘the same as’ and ‘wider than’.

Sharing

Pen friends

Introduce the concept of division by providing students with a variety of objects and asking them to share them equally amongst their friends. Have students sit in a circle. Place a number of objects in the middle (make sure the number is divisible by three). Objects could be MAB shorts, ice-block sticks or multi-link cubes. Ask students to choose three friends and to give each one the same number of objects. Ask the rest of the class to guess how many objects they think each student will end up with. Increase the number and allow for leftovers, as students become more familiar with the activity. Talk about the importance of sharing in everyday life. Ask students to suggest times when it is important to share. When is it OK not to share?

Ask students what a pen friend is. Does anyone have a pen friend? What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a pen friend? If it is possible, arrange with a teacher at another school for students to correspond with each other. Each student could send an introductory letter with details about themselves to the other teacher. Ask the teacher to match your students with her own. Students need to understand that writing will be an ongoing commitment. You could have them write to each other just for the duration of the term, so that after that time they can choose to stop writing to each other.

Picnic time Arrange for your students to go on a class picnic. Ask some mums and dads to come along and help with supervision. Go to a local park or beach, or set up an area in your playground and have your picnic before the rest of the school comes out for lunch.


Why is it important to have friends?

Write ‘When I have friends’ in the middle of a large sheet of chart paper. Radiating out from this statement, students can write comments such as ‘I am happy’ and ‘I have someone to play with’. From ‘I am happy’, students could add a radiating arm that says ‘so I learn more,’ and ‘so I sleep better.’ From this could be an arm that says ‘so I am healthier’, and so on. If students cope well with this activity, ask them to complete a consequence chart with ‘If I had no friends’ as the central idea. Complete this activity on a different day.

Imagine a world with no friends Have students imagine what it would be like to have no friends. Treat this activity with caution if some students in your class are having trouble making friends. Read a text about making friends with children with disabilities or children from different cultures (see Resources). As a class, make a list of friendly things that each student could try to do. Make a ‘Friendly Feats Diary.’ On a large sheet of card write the days of the week, from Monday to Friday, evenly spaced down the side of the page. For each day, ask students to suggest some ‘friendly feats’ that everyone in the class could achieve. Some examples include: ■ at lunch time sit next to someone I’ve never sat next to before ■ write a letter to a friend ■ be partners with someone I’ve never been partners with before ■ smile at someone ■ give a flower to a friend ■ include someone new in your game ■ pay someone a compliment. At the end of the day, discuss how hard or easy students found it to be friendly. Find out how many students were able to fulfill their friendly feat.

School reunion Have a discussion with students about school reunions. Tell students about your personal experiences of reunions or friends that you have maintained contact with since school years. Bring in some of your old school photos. Have students ask their parents if they have any old school photos that they can show the class. Encourage students to think about how their parents’ appearances have changed. Have students imagine their own school reunion when they are, say, 20 or 30 years old. Provide students with copies of BLM 9. Have them choose two friends and then draw and write about how they think their friends will change over time.

Creative play Throughout this unit make sure that you allow time for creative play. Provide students with dress-ups (lots of hats), give them access to the home corner, have them build with a variety of objects, have a big tub of water with measuring jugs and a baby doll to wash, set up a farm, provide lots of craft materials. Creative play gives students opportunities to negotiate, share, discuss, role-play and converse with their friends.

Do grown-ups have friends? Ask students to talk about the friends their parents have. Do students know where their parents met their friends? Help students to see that there are some friends that you know for a very long time, but there will always be opportunities to meet and make new friends. As adults we maintain some of the friends from our youth, but many of our friends are made later, in the many situations we find ourselves in.

Friendship awards Have students make a friendship award for a friend. Photocopy BLM 10 onto card and let students use it as an outline. Encourage students to make use of colour and decoration and to think of some meaningful words to write on the certificate. Help them to write specific comments and to avoid general descriptions like ‘because she’s nice’. You may want to have an awards ceremony in class.

Consequence chart A consequence chart allows students to explore causes and effects and to record what they consider to be the consequences of a situation. If it is the first consequence chart students have done, it is probably better to complete this activity as a whole class.


BLM 1

Name: ................................................................................................................Date: ............................................................

Friendly A to Z Write a ‘friendly’ word for each letter of the alphabet. a

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n

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b

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o

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c

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p

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d

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q

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e

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r

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f

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s

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g

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t

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h

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u

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i

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v

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j

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w

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k

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x

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l

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y

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m

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z

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© Blake Education – Friends Integrated Unit This page may be reproduced by the original purchaser for non-commercial classroom use.

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BLM 2

Name: ................................................................................................................Date: ............................................................

Feeling friends How do you feel when you are with your friends? Colour in the faces that show how you feel.

happy

brave

shy

afraid

impatient

surprised

bored

excited

sad

jealous

loved

angry

Can you add some more on the back of this sheet? © Blake Education – Friends Integrated Unit This page may be reproduced by the original purchaser for non-commercial classroom use.

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BLM 3

Name: ................................................................................................................Date: ............................................................

Friendly words These words are missing some letters. Can you finish the words so they match the pictures? Don’t forget the rule: i before e except after c!

fr _ _ nd

handkerch _ _ f

p_ _

p _ _ ce of cake

Some ‘end’ words

_ end

_ end

_ _ _ end

_ end


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BLM 4

Name: ................................................................................................................Date: ............................................................

Friends in a photo There are three chairs in a row in the Friendship Photography Studio. Choose three friends. Draw them sitting on the chairs. How many different ways can you arrange them for a photo?


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BLM 5

4. In the dolls draw your best friend, an adult friend, a friend who goes to another school and a friend who lives in (or has been to) another country.

3. Cut out the doll shape.

2. Fold the paper along the lines into a zig-zag shape. Keep the doll shape on top.

fold

fold

fold

✄

1. Cut out the box below on the dotted line.

✄

✄

Make a paper doll chain

Name: ................................................................................................................Date: ............................................................


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BLM 6

Name: ................................................................................................................Date: ............................................................

Make a ‘Find a Friend’ game


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BLM 7

Name: ................................................................................................................Date: ............................................................

Friendship flowers 1. Cut out the flower shape. 2. Trace the shape onto card and cut it out. 3. Add colour and decorations and attach a straw as a stem. 4. Choose a friend to give the friendship flower to. You could give a flower to someone who is sad or lonely. 5. Give your flower away and make another one!


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BLM 8

Name: ................................................................................................................Date: ............................................................

My body, your body Use something in your classroom to measure different parts of your body. Ask a friend to help you. Record their measurements too. my measurement

my friend’s measurement

whose is the longest?

toe to ankle

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ankle to hip

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hip to underarm

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shoulder to fingertip

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shoulder to shoulder

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nose to belly button

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BLM 9

Name: ................................................................................................................Date: ............................................................

How will they change? Think about two of your good friends. Draw a picture of what you think they will look like when they are 20 years old and 30 years old. Write about what you think they will be doing.

Name: ...................................................................................

Name: ...................................................................................

At 20 years old

At 20 years old

What my friend is doing:


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Name: ...................................................................................

Name: ...................................................................................

At 30 years old

At 30 years old



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BLM 10

Name: ................................................................................................................Date: ............................................................

Make a Friendship Award


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