One of the best ways to teach children about friendship is to model positive friendship behaviors. Programs such as Second Step can help teachers implement social skills training in the classroom. Teachers can also do this work on their own. Choose a skill such as anger management and create a scenario. Gather the class and tell a story about children who get into a disagreement. Choose volunteers to act out the scene. Ask the class to talk about the feelings associated with the situation. Then ask how they might control the negative emotions -- for example, by counting backward, taking deep breaths, or walking away for a few minutes. Have the volunteer actors repeat the scene using one or more of the strategies suggested by the class.
Give students many opportunities to work in pairs or groups. Children who have positive experiences working together on academic assignments often gravitate toward each other in social situations. By partnering students with peers they may not have chosen to work with otherwise, teachers create opportunities for children to get to know new people.
Allow students to choose a friend, or partner students you think have something in common, and ask them to interview each other. The children can then become reporters, sharing what they've learned about their partners with the rest of the class. They can build lists of their similarities and differences or create posters about their new friends. Older children could meet with their partners repeatedly and then write biographies about each other as a final project.
Writing can be an effective way for children to express their feelings. Create writing workshop assignments that prompt students to write about friendship or their feelings about their friends. Assignments might include writing about a close friend, what friendship means to them, how to be a good friend, or why friends are important. They could illustrate their stories or type them on the computer. They could even write a letter to a friend.