Our Responsibility in Friendship

The Expectations of Friendship 

The three concepts for this unit are function, responsibility and connection. Many of the children have retained an understanding of the concept function, today we focused on the meaning of responsibility.

When you're finished playing with toys, what's your responsibility?

"To clean them up!" Simone

When your mom says go to bed, what's your responsibility?

"To go to sleep" Sofia

When we think of friendship, if we expect our friend to play with us, to help us, and to be kind then what's our responsibility?

I used the story "Hello" as a launching point - the children looked at a picture of a group of children playing Ring Around the Rosie and coloured of the children they imagined was themselves. We played the game and then read the story till it came to the part where there is a boy left out. What's he thinking? wanting? feeling? What should happen in this situation? What would YOU do if you were a child in the group - what's your responsibility?

Choosing a character

This brought up a question by Rocco "What if I don't want to play with my friend?" (when they ask me) Wanting to play on your own or with someone else is okay, but we have a responsibility to deliver the message in a kind and caring way. How could this sound? "I don't want to right now but I'll play with you later" "I'll play with you when I'm finished this game."

Noticing someone is left out

Being left out makes me sad

"Would you like to join us?"

The children recognized they should include the boy in the story and thought of some words

"I'm sorry we left you out."

"Would you like to play?"

Simone added that the boy had a responsibility to ask if he could play "Can I play too?"

Drawing how it feels to be included

How did it feel to be included? Happy! Good! Nice! The children drew pictures of images that felt happy, good, and nice to represent how they felt when they were included in the game