What does "good friend" mean?

We gather all the children together and make a circle.

We explain to the group that we would like them to start thinking about what a good friendship involves. We encourage children to think of friendship as a two-way process that requires work, in case we want it to be successful. This means that if they want a friendship to work well, they must also have the characteristics of a good friend.

We hand out the cards and ask the children to write as a headline:

What does "good friend" mean?

and below:

• Three things I think make a friend good:

1. .
2. .
3. .

• What makes me a good friend:

1. .
2. .
3. .

• .................................................. ....... is my friend because, ...................................... ...................

• We are good friends, because ...............

We give children 15 minutes to fill in the blanks with their own ideas and thoughts. We ask them to work individually at this stage and we emphasize that there are no right or wrong answers.

Once everyone is done, we split the group into pairs and ask them to share what they have written.

Then we go back to the circle and discuss the ideas they had.

Have similar ideas been expressed? Are there any suggestions based on appearance or social status?

For example, being "nice" or "knowing a lot of people in our city" may be considered important characteristics, but can they really be the basis of a friendship?

We highlight the main issues and come up with a common list of features.

We keep it, so that in future meetings we will be given the opportunity to talk about friends and friendship again.