Friendship

In this lesson, pupils celebrate friendship. First, learners are introduced to the topic of friendship through simple drawings. Then they join in a teacher-led discussion about what makes a good friend. They do a wordsearch to find keywords and use these to complete a gap-fill text about what makes a good friend. Finally, learners work in groups, using the ideas from the lesson to make classroom posters celebrating friendship.

This lesson can be used to celebrate the International Day of Friendship or at any time of the year. The United Nations declared 30 July as the International Day of Friendship with the idea that 'friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.'

Lesson outcomes

Practise speaking skills
Review vocabulary related to friendship
Learn about the importance of friendship
Use English creatively
Celebrate the International Day of Friendship

Materials

The materials can be downloaded in PDF format below.

Lesson plan
Worksheet 1 - Vocabulary activities
Worksheet 2 - Poster

You will also need:

large sheets of paper or card
colour pencils or crayons

Procedure

Introduce the topic of friendship on the board using some simple drawings.

On the board, draw yourself as a stick person. Ask ‘Who’s this?’ Elicit an answer (It’s you!)
Then draw another stick person next to you. Ask ‘Who’s this?’ Elicit an answer (It’s your friend.)
Explain that this lesson is all about friendship. If appropriate explain that July 30th is The International Day of Friendship.

For higher levels:

Conduct a classroom discussion about what makes a good friend.

Write the following question on the board: What makes a good friend?
Ask learners to put up their hands to suggest ideas. Accept any reasonable ideas and make notes on the board, e.g. a good friend is kind to you. Encourage all learners to participate by sharing their ideas.

For lower level learners

Ask learners to write a list of all the words or phrases they associate with friendship. If necessary, let them write in their own language. Give them a time limit of 2 minutes. When they have finished, write the words on the board and go through translations and/or meanings.

Give each learner a copy of Worksheet 1.

Put learners into pairs and ask them to complete Activity 1 to find the words in the grid. If necessary, go through the words and explain the meanings.
Answers: See Appendix 1 at the end of the downloadable lesson plan.
Ask your learners to complete Activity 2. They should use the words from Activity 1 to complete the sentences. Check the answers: A jokes, B homework, C favourite, D lies, E shares, F problems, G lends, H finds, I angry, J kind
Then ask them to complete Activity 3. They should tick the sentences that they agree with.

Note: This could be the end of lesson 1.

Put learners into small groups to make a poster celebrating friendship.
Give each group 1 copy of Worksheet 2. Check the instructions with the whole class. Monitor and support as needed.

Make a classroom display of the posters for parents to see when they visit the school.

Thanks a lot for the article and materials. It will be useful in my work with my young learners.

This teaching method is interesting "Firstly, learners are introduced to the topic of friendship through a simple word game. Then they join in a teacher-led discussion about what makes a good friend. They do a puzzle activity to find 10 key words and use these to complete a gap-fill text about what makes a good friend. Finally, learners work in groups, using the ideas from the lesson to make classroom posters celebrating friendship." https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/friendship

i could not find the lessons , could tell how can i get ? please

Hi rashed, If you look on the page where it says 'Materials', just below you will see a section that says 'Downloads'. You need to click on the documents to download and save them onto your computer. They are PDF files. Let us know if you are having problems with the downloads. Thanks, Cath TE Team

Thanks, Katherine for the lesson plan on celebrating International Day of Friendship. The suggested activities make a good speaking and writing follow-up for my impending crochet lesson where I'll get my young charges to crochet a Friendship band. Thanks once again

Thanks a lot for the article and the lesson plan.
My classes will return on July 30th and I will implement this activity with my students, I think it will be very interesting, and then I will comment on how the class went.

thanks.