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How Can I Help My Friend?

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Lesson Plan

Being a Good Friend Helper

Students will identify different ways to help friends and understand the positive impact of prosocial behavior, fostering empathy and strengthening peer relationships.

Learning to offer help empowers students to be positive contributors to their friendships and classroom community, creating a supportive and respectful environment for everyone.

Audience

Elementary School Students

Time

45 minutes

Approach

Through discussion, stories, and an activity, students will explore and practice helping behaviors.

Materials

Whiteboard or Chart Paper, Markers, Helping Hands Stories Slide Deck, Kindness Chain Link Activity, Strips of paper (various colors), Pens or pencils, Tape or glue, and One Act of Kindness I Saw Today Cool Down

Prep

Gather Materials & Review Content

15 minutes

Step 1

Warm-Up: What Does 'Help' Look Like?

5 minutes

  • Begin by asking students: "What does it mean to help someone?" Allow a few students to share their initial thoughts.
  • Ask: "Why is it important to help our friends?" Write down keywords or short phrases on the board/chart paper as students share.

Step 2

Introduction: Being a Friend Helper

5 minutes

  • Introduce the lesson's main idea: Today, we're going to talk about how we can be amazing friend helpers!
  • Use the Helping Hands Stories Slide Deck to introduce the concept of prosocial behavior and being a friend helper.

Step 3

Story Time & Discussion: Helping Hands Stories

15 minutes

  • Present the Helping Hands Stories Slide Deck.
  • For each story/scenario, pause and ask questions:
    • "What was the problem in this story?"
    • "How did the character help?"
    • "What else could the character have done to help?"
    • "How do you think the person being helped felt?"
  • Encourage students to share their own experiences of helping or being helped by a friend.

Step 4

Activity: Kindness Chain Link

15 minutes

  • Introduce the Kindness Chain Link Activity.
  • Explain that each link in our chain will represent an act of kindness or help.
  • Distribute paper strips, pens/pencils, and demonstrate how to write one act of kindness or helping a friend on each strip.
  • Guide students to write down 3-5 ways they can help a friend (e.g., "sharing my toys," "listening when they're sad," "helping pick up dropped pencils").
  • Have students connect their strips into a paper chain using tape or glue, forming a "Kindness Chain" for the classroom.

Step 5

Cool-Down: One Act of Kindness I Saw Today

5 minutes

  • Conclude the lesson with the One Act of Kindness I Saw Today Cool Down.
  • Ask students to reflect on one act of kindness or helping they observed or participated in today (either in class or outside).
  • Collect their responses as an exit ticket.
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Slide Deck

Welcome, Friend Helpers!

Today, we're going to learn about being amazing helpers to our friends!

Welcome students and introduce the idea of being a 'friend helper'. Ask what 'helping' means to them.

What is Prosocial Behavior?

It means doing kind things for others, like sharing, comforting, and helping out! It makes everyone feel happy.

Introduce the concept of prosocial behavior and how it makes everyone feel good.

Story 1: Dropped Crayons

Maya tripped and all her crayons spilled across the floor. She looks really sad.

Read the scenario and ask students: 'What's the problem? How can our friend help? What else could they do?'

Story 2: New Kid Nerves

There's a new student named Leo in class. He sits by himself during free play and looks a little shy.

Read the scenario and ask students: 'What's the problem? How can our friend help? What else could they do?'

Story 3: Sad News

Sam's favorite book got ripped by accident. He's trying not to cry, but his eyes are watery.

Read the scenario and ask students: 'What's the problem? How can our friend help? What else could they do?'

Story 4: Sharing Struggles

Two friends, Lily and Tom, both want to play with the same toy car, but there's only one. They're starting to argue.

Read the scenario and ask students: 'What's the problem? How can our friend help? What else could they do?'

Being a Great Friend Helper!

We learned so many ways to help our friends today!

  • We can share.
  • We can include others.
  • We can comfort them.
  • We can offer practical help.

Every act of kindness makes our friendships stronger!

Summarize the key takeaways and reinforce the idea that helping friends is important and makes a big difference.

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Activity

Kindness Chain Link Activity

Objective: To identify and illustrate concrete ways to help friends, creating a visual representation of classroom kindness.

Materials:

  • Strips of paper (various colors, pre-cut)
  • Pens or pencils
  • Tape or glue

Instructions:

  1. Understand Kindness: We've talked about many ways to be a friend helper. Now, it's your turn to think about specific acts of kindness.
  2. Write Your Ideas: On each paper strip, write down one way you can help a friend. Think about things you can do or say.
    • Examples: "Share my toys," "Listen when they are sad," "Help them pick up things," "Ask them to play," "Give a compliment."












  3. Create Your Links: Try to think of at least 3-5 different ways to help a friend. Write each idea on a separate strip.












  4. Connect the Chain: Once you have written your acts of kindness, carefully connect your paper strips into a chain using tape or glue. You will be making a personal chain of kindness!
  5. Classroom Kindness Chain: We will then combine all our personal chains to make one big classroom "Kindness Chain"! This chain will remind us every day how we can be wonderful friend helpers.

Reflection Question:
What is one new way you learned you could help a friend today?



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Cool Down

One Act of Kindness I Saw Today

Name: _________________________

Date: _________________________

Think about our lesson today and what we learned about being a good friend helper. Reflect on your day in class, or even what you noticed on the way to school.

What is one act of kindness or helping that you saw or did today? It can be something big or something small!

Write about it below:











How did this act of kindness make you or someone else feel?





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How Can I Help My Friend? • Lenny Learning