Friendships we make in school are essential to our emotional development, but some children struggle to do this. For some kids, making friends is a real challenge. As the leaders of our classrooms, it is of utmost importance that we foster an inclusive classroom where ALL children feel a sense of belonging regardless of their race, religion, family make up, or sex. Our children NEED us to embed within our daily curriculum resources that build a sense of community and belonging.

Today, I’d like to link up with my fellow bloggers to help provide readers with go-to resources for completing the mission of inclusiveness.

Resources and Ideas for building friendships

This Pinterest board has been formed to collect resources, book suggestions, blog posts, as well as other themed resources. Feel free to follow it or pin to your own collection.

Book Suggestions that Inspire Friendships

There are so many wonderful books about friendship, but I want to highlight a few of my favorites along with resources I have created to go with them. Here are a few titles that I have not created resources for:

Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig
Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun by Maria Dismondy
Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell

Easy Ways to Build a Friendships in the Classroom

Of all the books on my bookshelf, the one I feel most strongly about using in a friendship unit is Bully by Patricia Polacco. It is outstanding, and when I used it last year with my students, it worked beautifully as an introduction to internet safety as well as bullying. I teamed with our technology specialist and guidance counselor to address these issues and as an introduction to the writing assignment I was using with my kids. I have a unit developed to go with the book which includes comprehension and writing materials.

The second book on my list is the book, Goggles by Ezra Jack Keats. It too deals with bullying, but the book is written on a lower level making it more appropriate for second through fourth grades. This unit’s focus is more on comprehension, but there it does have a brief prompt that can be used as a post reading response.

Another favorite of mine is Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson. This book just really touched me when I discovered it by reading my friend Wendy’s blog post on Read with Me ABC. I recently created this unit bundle to highlight this book, focus on character development and traits, and extend the themes through writing.

Enemy Pie by Derek Munson is the last one I’ll share. It is such a great book for how to handle conflicts and turn enemies into friends. I created this Boom Card deck for to help teachers with digital activities during Covid, but it’s a great book companion for in class too. You can simply project the deck and use the activities for discussion/review.

fun ways to foster friendships

I was so excited with some of the ideas I found on Pinterest, and I know you’ll enjoy them too. The first find is a great decor freebie to encourage friendship all year long. What a great way to build friendships and encourage positive treatment in the classroom. I just love this! To get your copy of the posters, just click the image to the right and be sure to leave feedback for my friend at Digital Divide and Conquer.

This next idea is a craft for the home, but I am thinking that it could be a fabulous friendships bulletin board too. Imagine cute pictures of each student in your classroom at the bottom. It would be a nice reminder that your classmates are people with feelings. To make it, you’ll have to come up with your own plan. The website it came from is no longer available.

This next craft is a group project for friendships. The Friendships tree starts with just the trunk. You can have your students trace their hands and cut them out. Then, each child designs his/her own. The original poster had the students add handprint leaves with positive behavior. I just love this idea, and I can see it being very effective with students too.