HOW TO USE THIS LESSON: The webpage below is intended to be projected for students to follow along. It includes basic instructions, definitions, etc. to guide students. Depending on your technology, you can have a student in charge of scrolling through the site, on your cues. Just have them try not to scroll past the thin purple dividers or thick colored banners until you are ready to start that next section!

You will also need to download and/or print this facilitator's guide. This document contains extra instructions, facilitator's notes, and other behind-the-scenes content necessary for the lesson.

Reflect and respond to the following questions:

When was the last time you spoke to your best friend? 

What did you talk about?

Discussion

Let’s get into groups of four and take a minute or two  to talk about what you heard and if there is a time you can relate.  You do not have to give specifics if you do not want to.  

While it is exciting when we start new friendships, there are times a friendship is no longer healthy or beneficial for us.  As I mentioned before, this is a natural thing to happen, but we need to be respectful to all involved.  In your groups, define one challenge to ending a close friendship.  Once you have that challenge defined, turn it into a question and write it on your paper.  Here is an example: We share the same friends - How can we share the same friends if we are not as close? 

Now that we no longer have challenges, but questions to answer, give your paper to the group to your right.  Once you have the paper from another group, your group will work together to come up with an answer to the question.  

Let’s share what some of your questions were and the answers you came up with.  Have groups share out.

Thank you for problem solving together.  While the signs mentioned in this video were the most common, there are times that relationships need to end for more severe reasons.  With your group discuss what some of these could be.  

Let’s just popcorn out your answers.

In this activity, we discussed specifically how to end a close friendship, however, this process can be used with all relationships. There are times when we are still in a relationship with someone, but it changes levels like being a significant other to becoming just friends.   This is ok, and we need to have open respectful communication to ensure everyone leaves the relationship feeling ok.  

Share with your group one thing you learned today or how you may approach changes in your relationships differently in the future.