Grades 1–2 Lead All-School Activity on Friendship
By Tonja Armstrong-MacInnis, Grades 1–2 Teacher
The Grades 1–2 students decided that they wanted to share their ideas about "friendship" for Linden's All-School activity this past week. The girls knew exactly what "theme" they wanted, and their creative juices were flowing as they brainstormed ideas that they wanted the Linden community to engage with. Some of the ideas were planting a friendship Linden tree, having everyone sit with a partner and then present what friendship means to them, making up a friendship skit on how to act when someone hurts your feelings, and going to the ravine with a friend to have a friendship hunt and play games. We settled on individually sharing what friendship means (please see quotes below), singing a heart-warming Bruno Mars song "I Can Count on You" (please see video, not the best quality, but so lovely), and everyone drawing a member of the community on a puzzle piece, with their name and a word that describes their friendship. Other activities each Linden family was asked to complete included crafting a friendship acrostic poem and presenting it, and making as many words as possible using the word "friendship."
Our wonderful All-School activity ended with five minutes to spare and lots of excitement in the air, so the Grades 1–2 students decided to have a dance party and lead the entire school in one of their favourite songs right now, "The Cha Cha Slide!" Thanks to everyone for participating!
Here is what our Grades 1–2 students think about friends and/or friendship:
"A friend is someone who listens to you and who is truthful to you."
"A friend is who is always kind to you and truthful to you."
"A friend is someone who lets you be true to yourself and tells you to not copy."
"A friend is a person who always looks out for you and is nice to you."
"Friends are people who are kind to you, help you out when you are sad or hurt, and play with you."
"A friend is true and is always there when you are blue."
"A friend is when someone always listens to you and helps you."
"Friends are always looking out for you and always there for you when you need help and if you are kind of sad, they ask if you are okay."
"When you are hurt and person supports you and you have to support them too."
We are so proud of the Grades 1–2! They showed a tremendous amount of teamwork and dedication to learning new words, an entirely new song, and dance moves. Way to go, girls, we are all super proud of you!
The photos below are from Grades 1–2 using their teacher's phone to take pictures. Fun times!