CECmisc.73


TITLE:  A FRIENDSHIP CHAIN

AUTHOR:  Trudy White, St. Charles Borromeo Catholic
         School; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

OBJECTIVE:  To facilitate students' ability to express
positive feelings towards another person and to build class
unity.

MATERIALS:  Strips of white paper, 3" x 14"
            Crayons or colored markers
            Stapler

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1.   Review lessons on "saying nice things" and on
     attributes of a good friend.
2.   Ask students to think about the person seated on their
     left and to brainstorm as many positive attributes as
     they can about that individual.  The teacher might
     demonstrate by brainstorming on the board about someone
     whom they all know, the P.E. teacher or the principal,
     for instance.  Emphasize the importance of listing only
     positive characteristics, and ask students to keep
     their lists private for the moment.
3.   Pass out  strips of paper, one to each student.
4.   Explain that the strips will be decorated and then
     stapled together to make a chain similar to ones used
     to decorate Christmas trees.  This chain, however, will
     be a visual representation of  the friendships which
     bind the class together.  Each strip of paper
     represents a link in this chain of friendship and is
     crucial to the completeness of the whole.
5.   Tell the students to write on their  strip of paper the
     name of the person to their left.  Encourage them to
     use decorative or "fancy" lettering.  They are then to
     choose from their brainstorming list some of the most
     important attributes of this person to also write or
     illustrate on the strip.  Strips should be colored
     and/or decorated as each student chooses.
6.   The teacher should circulate around the class to make
     sure comments being written are indeed positive!
7.  After the teacher has made a check of each link, have a
     sharing circle in which each student reads and presents
     to the person on his/her left the chain link which is
     then stapled to the next link as it is presented.
8.  The finished chain could be joined in a circle to
     further emphasize the importance of each link to the
     unity of the chain.  The chain should then be displayed
     in a prominent place in the classroom.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  The teacher should manipulate the seating
arrangement before the lesson begins to insure that
individuals who have strong negative feelings about each
other are not seated together.  It may also be necessary for
the teacher to be involved in the making of the chain by
exchanging links with the student who is unlikely to say
anything nice about anyone else or to have anything nice
said about him/her!