Friendship Topic Guide for Teachers

Having friends is important for your health and wellbeing. Sometimes finding, or being, a good friend can be difficult.

These activities and ideas can help children build healthy and positive relationships with others.

Teach your children about friendship using our handy topic guide!

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Teaching Ideas

This lovely assembly idea is also a terrific writing prompt. Encourage your children to think about the ingredients of a good friend. What would they include?
Help children to understand what it means to be a friend with this true or false worksheet.
Use this idea about a girl who designs a perfect robot friend to help children think about friends and how they behave towards each other.
This lesson is perfect as part of the transition from primary to secondary. It uses case histories and activities to discuss the challenges of making new friends, and how old friendships may change.
Read Stubby by Michael Foreman to your class and use some of our teaching ideas.
Put children into groups or pairs, and ask them to find three things they have in common. It can help if you give them a few prompts, like “A place you have all visited” or “A food you all like” to get started.
Watch some short films that feature unusual friendships, such as Piper or Light.
Make a class friendship chain, or use cut out hand prints to make a friendship wreath.

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Our reward notes are the perfect way to recognise when children are being fabulous friends!
Download our Friendship Pack for activities and resources to help build strong relationships.

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Animals can form friendships. A university study found that cows can have best friends. They measured the animal’s heart rates, which were lower when they were with their friends, and higher when they were with cows that they don’t know!
Scientists have found that people with close friends are healthier than those without.
One study found that babies as young as 9 months can tell whether two people are friends or not.
You might think that using “friend” as a verb is a modern development since social media became popular and we could “friend” people. In fact, it has been used that way for at least 800 years. The earliest known usage is from the 13th century, and Shakespeare used it in the play Henry V.