Heather Turner

Title: Friendship Flowers

Subject Area: Social Studies

Grade Level: First

Description or Outcome Statement: Children will relate to one another and share information about themselves. It is critical to learn good social skills early in life to get along well with others.

QCC Objectives:

Topic: Citizenship

Standard: Identifies the need for family and community rules. Recognizes that these rules may vary from culture to culture.

Specific Lesson Objectives:

The students will be able to:

• list qualities of good friends and obtain these qualities within themselves.

Materials:

• You Are Special, by Max Lucado
• Construction paper cut outs of 4 hearts per child and one round circle
• Markers
• Glue
• Large sheet of paper for listing

Procedures:

MOTIVATION: Gather students onto the floor in a group. Ask the students to think of their best friends in their head but do not talk aloud. Ask the students to think of why that person is their best friend.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: As part of the curriculum, friendships will be discussed in detail with the children. Children will relate to one another and share information about themselves. It is critical to learn good social skills early in life to get along well with others. At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to list qualities that they wish to find in a friend and qualities they want to have in themselves to be good friends. Students form relationships of trust and respect and they will recognize these factors.

TEACHER MODELING: Begin the lesson by telling the students about your best friend and why this person makes a good best friend. Give the class qualities that make this person your best friend. Explain that friends can be family members, pets, peers, adults, etc.
Ask children to raise their hand and when called upon tell what they like about their best friend, without naming the person.

CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING: How are we good friends? What makes our friends good friends? At first, did Punchinello think he was special? Why did the Wemmicks give Punchinello dots? How did Lucia help Punchinello? What did Eli tell Punchinello? Where the Wimmicks being good friends? Was Lucia being a good friend?

GUIDED PRACTICE: Make a list of things we like about our friends. Make a list of things we do as good friends. Read aloud, You Are Special, by Max Lucado. Discuss his friend and how she helped him. Friends are special people and we need to let them know that. Discuss with the students how we are good friends.

INDEPENDENT PRACTICE: Each student will receive one piece of construction paper, 4 heart cut outs, one circle, and a marker. After brainstorming about what makes their best friend a good friend, students will construct a friendship flower. The students will use the marker to write one quality of their best friend on each of the heart cutouts. The students will then use the hearts to form a flower on their piece of construction paper. The student can place the circle in the center of the hearts. The students will then write, “My friend is special because…” at the top of their paper.

Closure: To close the lesson, have each student share his or her friendship flower with the class. The flowers will be displayed in the classroom.

Adaptations:

• For an ESL student I would do the following:
• Keep questions brief and to the point.
• Allow for extra time to complete assessments.
• Break down activities into small steps and provide a lot of verbal reinforcement.
• For a student with a mild intellectual disability I would do the following:
• Provide a sample of the finished product before beginning the activity.
• Have in place a clear roadmap for the child to follow. Sequence of steps precisely given to him.
• Change steps, eliminating multi-level tasks when needed.
• Place self-checking and self-rewarding activities after each step to motivate the student.

Assessments: During discussion teacher will observe what children say about friends and this will show understanding of what a good friend is. The flower petal activity is a conclusion to lesson in which children list these good qualities about each other.

Extensions: As an extension to this lesson, have the students make a large wreath with good friendship qualities on each petal of the wreath.