Ff is for Friendship... and FREEBIE Friday!

   As valentine’s Day approaches, we will be focusing more on Friendship, rather than celebrate the actual holiday of Valentine’s Day.

   This past week, we learned about the Letter F. 

   We created feather art in the shape of the letter F, and we constructed a flower by searching for petals labeled with the letter.

   One of the big skills that I feel my kiddos need to work on is Friendship skills and how to play with other kids. It sounds so simple, but more than a handful of my children really struggle with these social skills.

   As part of our social emotional curriculum, it was time to start learning about how to play fair with friends. The concept focused on 3 different ways to play fair:

1)   Play together

2)  Trade

3)  Take turns

   This week we focused on learning how to play and work together. We read books about friends and had a discussion on the different things that friends like to do together. 

   We paired up the kids and had them paint each other’s hands. Each one placed their hand print on a paper and dictated a sentence to us about what they like to do together.

   This week, we also worked on measurement and that allowed me to create another opportunity for the kiddos to work together. Again, we paired them up and they traced each other’s shoe. (I wanted to have them trace each other’s foot, but some of them were really weird about taking off their socks and shoes!)

Once they traced each other’s foot, they took legos (which we had used earlier in the week as an introduction to measuring) and measured each foot to see who had the shorter foot and who had the longer foot. 

Look! I even got my shoe traced!!

   Other activities that we did this week to develop and foster Friendship skills included book buddy reading during Choice Time, small group relay races and we also made friendship bracelets with beads and pipe cleaners. It was so cute to see them giving each other a little homemade gift. 

(We made sure to kept track of the kids who had bracelets so that a child would not get two and ensured that everyone would receive one at the end of the day.)

   What about you? What kinds of fun things/special activities do you do to promote and encourage Fair Ways to play or work in the classroom?

 I would LOVE to hear your ideas!

   And before I forget, I have linked up with Teaching Blog Addict to share a Freebie with you!

Here is a cute TWO page Roll, Count & Cover Game, 

just in time for Valentine’s Day!

Enjoy!!