Lesson Plan

How to Be a Good Friend

Encourage awareness of good manners through literature and creative expression.

  • Grades: PreK–K, 1–2

Teaching Tip Before role-playing, give students suggestions for movements. If a student doesn’t feel secure acting out on their own, encourage him or her to invite a friend to join in. Role-playing is a great teaching tool that can be used to encourage understanding and promote creative expression.

As children experience relationships early in life, they learn that friendships can be both rewarding and challenging. Through healthy personal relationships, children can develop the foundation they need to socially grow as they mature. Use this lesson plan to encourage awareness of good manners through literature and creative expression.

Teach: Practice Makes Perfect!

Objective: The following activity nurtures essential:

• language and literacy skills

• social and emotional skills

Discuss definitions of the following words: courteous and polite. Have children role-play examples of friends being courteous and polite at school by taking turns, saying "thank you," and sharing. Then read Clifford’s Manners by Norman Bridwell (Scholastic). Explain that friends have more fun working together and playing when manners are used. Ask children to recall ways that Clifford used his manners in the story. Then, as a group, create a list of good manners to use in the classroom. Display the list and review it each day by briefly role-playing each manner.

Practice: I’m Courteous and Polite!

Objective: The following activity nurtures essential:

• social and emotional skills

• charting and graphing skills

Have each child place a sticky star on a classroom chart each time they are courteous and polite, individually, or as a group. Set goals for rewards at 5, 10, 15, and 20 stars and present “I’m Courteous and Polite” certificates to students when these goals are reached. Help your class decide on a group reward when everyone reaches his or her goal. What a fun way to recognize and promote good manners at school and home!

Extend: Learning good table manners is important at any age!

Help children learn more about good table manners by sharing visual examples of people using proper etiquette. Show children how to set a simple table with paper plates and plastic serving tools. Then have a classroom tea party or picnic, to practice good manners and create good habits at the table. Take pictures to create a “Kids with Good Manners” bulletin board.

Library

These books support Clifford’s Big Ideas and reinforce valuable early literacy skills:

• Clifford Goes to Dog School by Norman Bridwell (Scholastic)

• Clifford Barks by Norman Bridwell (Scholastic)

• Make New Friends (Yoko and Friends School Days) by Rosemary Wells (Hyperion)

  • Subjects:
    Character Education, Reading Comprehension, Early Social Skills, Manners and Conduct, Friends and Friendship, Social and Emotional Development
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