Friendships bring joy into our lives. Learning about healthy friendships can help us find out what a good friend is and how to be one too! It's important to know what things make a healthy friendship and what things make an unhealthy friendship for our happiness and wellbeing.

Healthy Friendship Fact Sheet

This sheet has some of the facts about Healthy Friendships. Can you identify other facts that could be added? Click the image to download the Healthy Friendship Fact Sheet. You can use the fact sheet anytime, to help you with the activities below.

Qualities and Characteristics of Healthy Friendships

The ABCs of the Importance of Friendship is another good way of learning about the qualities and characteristics of healthy friendships. (You can read it on Story Jumper - signing up is free.) What qualities mentioned in the book do you have as a friend and what ones can you identify in your friends?

The children in the video, What is a Good Friend? also talk about the different things that make a healthy friendship.

You can use the fact sheet or watch the video anytime, to help you with the activities below.

LINKS TO THE CURRICULUM:

PD2-2: Explains and uses strategies to develop resilience and to make them feel comfortable and safe

PD2-3: Explains how empathy, inclusion and respect can positively influence relationships

PD2-10: Demonstrates a range of interpersonal skills that build and enhance relationships and promote inclusion in various situations

Famous Friendships

Choose a famous friendship. Create the Top 10 Reasons why these characters/people have a good friendship. Clearly state the qualities and characteristics that make this a healthy friendship.

Think carefully about what will be your #1 reason why they are good friends - it has to really stand out to be #1!

LINKS TO THE CURRICULUM:

PD2-3: Explains how empathy, inclusion and respect can positively influence relationships

Listen and Share!

This game is a great activity for listening to things about your friends/family and sharing things about yourself with them.

A healthy friendship requires people to listen to each other, as well as share things about themselves. When you and your friend share personal information about yourselves, you can learn from each other and explore what you have in common and what makes you different - and that's healthy!

Watch the video, Take a Seat, Make a Friend. These strangers got to know each other better by taking time to listen to, and talk with, each other.

Click on the image to download the Listening and Sharing sheet. Choose someone in your class whom you don't know very well or a family member about whom you want to know more. Take it in turns to answer questions to help you learn things about each other that you may not already know!

Being a good listener is an important part of a healthy friendship. When the other person is speaking, be sure to listen and not interrupt. If you want to comment, wait until the person has finished sharing.

LINKS TO THE CURRICULUM:

PD2-3: Explains how empathy, inclusion and respect can positively influence relationships

PD2-10: Demonstrates a range of interpersonal skills that build and enhance relationships and promote inclusion in various situations

The book, Love is a Handful of Honey is another example of a catalogue poem.

LINKS TO THE CURRICULUM:

PD2-3: Explains how empathy, inclusion and respect can positively influence relationships

PD2-10: Demonstrates a range of interpersonal skills that build and enhance relationships and promote inclusion in various situations

Healthy Friendship Catalogue Poem

A catalogue poem repeats either the opening and/or closing phrases of each line. The story, 'Do You Have Real Friends' on Story Jumper (signing up is free) is an example of a Catalogue Poem.

Write a catalogue poem about real friends or healthy friendships.

Don't forget to use the Healthy Friendship Fact Sheet at the top of this page for ideas and prompts. You can also read The ABCs of the Importance of Friendship again, to refresh you memory about qualities and characteristics of healthy friendships.

LINKS TO THE CURRICULUM:

PD2-3: Explains how empathy, inclusion and respect can positively influence relationships

PD2-10: Demonstrates a range of interpersonal skills that build and enhance relationships and promote inclusion in various situations

Friendship Basics!

Friendship Basics Snap/Matching Card Game:

Watch the video, Friendship Basics. Listen to the different characteristics of a good, healthy friendship and the explanations given. Recall/discuss the qualities good friends should possess that were/were not mentioned in the video and also the ones on the Healthy Friendship Fact Sheet.

On your own or with a friend or group, create a Friendship Basics Snap or Matching Card Game. Click on the image to download the card template.

LINKS TO THE CURRICULUM:

PD2-1: Explores strategies to manage physical, social and emotional change

PD2-2: Explains and uses strategies to develop resilience and to make them feel comfortable and safe

PD2-3: Explains how empathy, inclusion and respect can positively influence relationships

PD2-9: Demonstrates self-management skills to respond to their own and others’ actions

PD2-10: Demonstrates a range of interpersonal skills that build and enhance relationships and promote inclusion in various situations

Healthy and Unhealthy Friendships

Everyone experiences some challenges or difficult times in their friendships. Even in the best of friendships, things happen and problems arise. It is important that you are able to know the difference between healthy friendships and unhealthy friendships.

One way you can do this is to decide if the issues you face with your friend are warning signs or unhealthy/bad signs in your friendship. Warning signs make you feel a little worried about your friendship, while unhealthy/bad signs make you feel very uncomfortable. It is important to know and understand the characteristics of healthy friendships and unhealthy friendships so we can look after our well-being.

Click on the image to download the Healthy and Unhealthy Friendships Sheet. Using the information on the sheet, write some scenarios about friendship and share them in a group. Ask the group to identify if they are Healthy Friendships or Unhealthy friendships. You may like to dramatise (act them out) to make it even more fun.

Examples:

Jacob continues to say your goals for the future are silly. Is this a sign of a healthy or unhealthy friendship?
You received a higher mark than your friend Sarah in the Maths Test. She keeps telling other people your mark was just a fluke. Is this a sign of a healthy or unhealthy friendship?

Sourced and adapted from the Department of Developmental Services Conneticut

https://portal.ct.gov/AdvocatesCorner/Life-Tips/Your-Choices/Healthy-Friendships-and-Relationships