Learning How to be a Good Friend Welcome Families! I am Mrs. Osborne, the teacher candidate in your student's classroom this year. I am so excited to be working with Mrs. Young to make this year a wonderful year of learning with your student. We will be doing a themed literature unit on learning how to be a good friend. Throughout this unit, we will be reading five pieces of children’s literature in order to understand how to be a good friend. This unit will teach students important reading and writing skills as we explore and make meaning about our theme. We will be focusing on 3 things regarding what it means to be a good friend:
Good friends can be different from you
Good friends include others
Good friends work together to solve problems
A large part of the learning experience in 1st grade is socialization. Students are learning how to interact with their peers, how to cooperate and share, and how to be responsible members of the classroom. I believe that focusing on these 3 aspects of friendship will give the students tools to be successful at school as well as at home.
You can help your students gain a deeper understanding of these concepts about friendship by:
Asking your student what it is they learned about being a good friend each day.
Sharing with your students pictures or stories about friends that you have that are different from you. Share what you appreciate about those differences.
Role playing with your student. Give them conflict scenarios and help them practice solving problems in a constructive way.
Example scenarios:
Your friend is using the toy that you want to play with. You don't think they are sharing very well. What do you do?
There is a new student in your class. You see other kids being mean to that new student. What can you do?
Come up with some of your own! You can use real situations that you know they have experienced.
The books we will be reading in class: The Sandwich SwapThe day Lily stops eating her peanut butter and jelly sandwich to tell Salma her hummus and pita sandwich looks yucky—and vice versa—is the day they stop being friends. Their collaborative art projects end. They no longer play on the swings or jump rope together, and, at lunch time, they sit at different tables. As their story spreads across the school, so does intolerance. Students begin choosing sides in the cafeteria and calling each other "Jelly heads" and "Chickpea brains." When the two girls get caught in the middle of a food fight and called to the principal's office, they decide it's time to make some changes. The first is accomplished over their sandwich lunch; the second, over a multicultural smorgasbord, the latter depicted on a foldout of an enormous table laden with dishes and flags. Soft watercolor cartoon illustrations portray a lively student body and a slightly forbidding principal. This engaging title reminds children that having the courage to try new things can result in positive experiences. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan (2010). The Sandwich Swap. New York, NY: Hyperion Books.
The Recess QueenA schoolyard bully is enlightened by the new kid in class in this lively story about the power of kindness and friendship. "Mean Jean was Recess Queen/ and nobody said any different," the tale begins. Each day at recess, Mean Jean blasts through the playground and her cowering classmates so that she can kick, swing and bounce before anyone else. No one dare cross her path: "She'd push 'em and smoosh 'em, lollapaloosh 'em." But when tiny Katie Sue, a new student, arrives, all bets are off. Unaware of the playground hierarchy, the new girl enthusiastically kicks, swings and bounces before the Recess Queen gets the chance. Her role usurped, Mean Jean moves toward a meltdown, until Katie Sue makes her an offer she finds difficult to refuse: an invitation to play together. O'Neill, A. (2002). The Recess Queen. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.
Enemy PieWhat should have been a perfect summer for one young boy is ruined when Jeremy Ross moves in and becomes number one on the narrator's enemy list. Fortunately, his father has a secret recipe for a pie that is guaranteed to help get rid of enemies. While Dad works on mixing the ingredients and baking the pie, he explains his son's role in the plan: "-you need to spend a day with your enemy. Even worse, you have to be nice to him." It sounds tough, but the boy decides to give it a try. Predictably, between throwing water balloons at the girls, playing basketball, and hiding out in the tree house, he decides that Jeremy is not so bad after all. There's still the problem of the pie, however. When his father serves up the dessert, the young protagonist decides to warn Jeremy that it is "poisonous or something." However, it seems that both his father and his new friend are just fine, and what's more, the pie is delicious. This is a clever tale with an effective message about how to handle relationships and conflict. Munson, D. (2000). Enemy Pie. San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books.
The Hating Book This story is about a little girl who is so mad at her friend. Her friend is ignoring her and she doesn’t know why. She finally talks to her friend and realizes it was all a misunderstanding. They realize their mistakes and go back to being friends. This story is all about solving problems constructively. It is important for students to learn about calmly talking through their problems instead of using mean words or their fists. This book will be used to help students better understand the generalization LT3 that good friends work together to solve problems.
Zolotow, C. (1989). The Hating Book. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Henry and the Kite Dragon Eight-year-old Henry lives in New York City's Chinatown, the "three tiny streets" next to the Little Italy neighborhood. He and his friends love to visit the kite maker, Grandfather Chin, to help him paste and paint the kites, which Grandfather Chin flies from his roof in dramatic swoops, sometimes chasing pigeons. Then some boys from Little Italy begin to throw rocks that destroy the kites. Henry wants to fight, but Grandfather Chin prefers to resist quietly by continuing to fly kites of increasing glory. Finally, Henry confronts the boys, and learns that they keep pet pigeons--the very birds that Grandfather Chin has chased with his kites. Together, the children work out a deal for air space: kites in the morning; pet pigeons in the afternoon. Hall, B.E. (2004). Henry and the Kite Dragon. New York, NY: Philomel Publishers.
Welcome Families! I am Mrs. Osborne, the teacher candidate in your student's classroom this year. I am so excited to be working with Mrs. Young to make this year a wonderful year of learning with your student.
We will be doing a themed literature unit on learning how to be a good friend. Throughout this unit, we will be reading five pieces of children’s literature in order to understand how to be a good friend. This unit will teach students important reading and writing skills as we explore and make meaning about our theme.
We will be focusing on 3 things regarding what it means to be a good friend:
A large part of the learning experience in 1st grade is socialization. Students are learning how to interact with their peers, how to cooperate and share, and how to be responsible members of the classroom. I believe that focusing on these 3 aspects of friendship will give the students tools to be successful at school as well as at home.
You can help your students gain a deeper understanding of these concepts about friendship by:
The books we will be reading in class:
The Sandwich SwapThe day Lily stops eating her peanut butter and jelly sandwich to tell Salma her hummus and pita sandwich looks yucky—and vice versa—is the day they stop being friends. Their collaborative art projects end. They no longer play on the swings or jump rope together, and, at lunch time, they sit at different tables. As their story spreads across the school, so does intolerance. Students begin choosing sides in the cafeteria and calling each other "Jelly heads" and "Chickpea brains." When the two girls get caught in the middle of a food fight and called to the principal's office, they decide it's time to make some changes. The first is accomplished over their sandwich lunch; the second, over a multicultural smorgasbord, the latter depicted on a foldout of an enormous table laden with dishes and flags. Soft watercolor cartoon illustrations portray a lively student body and a slightly forbidding principal. This engaging title reminds children that having the courage to try new things can result in positive experiences.
Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan (2010). The Sandwich Swap. New York, NY: Hyperion Books.
The Recess QueenA schoolyard bully is enlightened by the new kid in class in this lively story about the power of kindness and friendship. "Mean Jean was Recess Queen/ and nobody said any different," the tale begins. Each day at recess, Mean Jean blasts through the playground and her cowering classmates so that she can kick, swing and bounce before anyone else. No one dare cross her path: "She'd push 'em and smoosh 'em, lollapaloosh 'em." But when tiny Katie Sue, a new student, arrives, all bets are off. Unaware of the playground hierarchy, the new girl enthusiastically kicks, swings and bounces before the Recess Queen gets the chance. Her role usurped, Mean Jean moves toward a meltdown, until Katie Sue makes her an offer she finds difficult to refuse: an invitation to play together.
O'Neill, A. (2002). The Recess Queen. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.
Enemy PieWhat should have been a perfect summer for one young boy is ruined when Jeremy Ross moves in and becomes number one on the narrator's enemy list. Fortunately, his father has a secret recipe for a pie that is guaranteed to help get rid of enemies. While Dad works on mixing the ingredients and baking the pie, he explains his son's role in the plan: "-you need to spend a day with your enemy. Even worse, you have to be nice to him." It sounds tough, but the boy decides to give it a try. Predictably, between throwing water balloons at the girls, playing basketball, and hiding out in the tree house, he decides that Jeremy is not so bad after all. There's still the problem of the pie, however. When his father serves up the dessert, the young protagonist decides to warn Jeremy that it is "poisonous or something." However, it seems that both his father and his new friend are just fine, and what's more, the pie is delicious. This is a clever tale with an effective message about how to handle relationships and conflict.
Munson, D. (2000). Enemy Pie. San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books.
The Hating Book
This story is about a little girl who is so mad at her friend. Her friend is ignoring her and she doesn’t know why. She finally talks to her friend and realizes it was all a misunderstanding. They realize their mistakes and go back to being friends. This story is all about solving problems constructively. It is important for students to learn about calmly talking through their problems instead of using mean words or their fists. This book will be used to help students better understand the generalization LT3 that good friends work together to solve problems.
Zolotow, C. (1989). The Hating Book. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Henry and the Kite Dragon
Eight-year-old Henry lives in New York City's Chinatown, the "three tiny streets" next to the Little Italy neighborhood. He and his friends love to visit the kite maker, Grandfather Chin, to help him paste and paint the kites, which Grandfather Chin flies from his roof in dramatic swoops, sometimes chasing pigeons. Then some boys from Little Italy begin to throw rocks that destroy the kites. Henry wants to fight, but Grandfather Chin prefers to resist quietly by continuing to fly kites of increasing glory. Finally, Henry confronts the boys, and learns that they keep pet pigeons--the very birds that Grandfather Chin has chased with his kites. Together, the children work out a deal for air space: kites in the morning; pet pigeons in the afternoon.
Hall, B.E. (2004). Henry and the Kite Dragon. New York, NY: Philomel Publishers.