Pause for Thought: Making Up
Friends matter
by Rebecca Parkinson (video recording by Vita)
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To encourage us to think about the importance of friendships.
Preparation and materials
- You will need to have the means available to play the video below. It is 1.28 minutes long.
- You will need either a short paper chain or an image of one. An example is available at: https://tinyurl.com/ycnvk3u9
- You will also need some felt-tip pens and some strips of paper to make a paper chain.
Assembly
Ask the children to think about their friends or family. Ask them why they like these people and why these people are important to them.
Show the paper chain, or the image of it, to the children.
Ask the children to imagine that the paper chain is made up of their friends and family. All of these people are joined to us in some way. All of the people in the chain are joined together, too, but when a friendship between two people breaks, it affects all those around them.
If you have a paper chain available, pull the chain so that it snaps. If not, show the image of the chain and ask what would happen if two people pulled on either end. Point out that although it is only the connection between two children in the chain that has broken, it has caused the whole chain to collapse.
Explain that, when we have problems in our friendships, we need to sort them out quickly so that the effect of our falling-out with one person doesn’t spread to lots of other people.
Show the video below, explaining that Peter felt like his friendship with Jesus had been broken.
Time for reflection
Ask the children to be quiet for a few moments and think about their family, their friends and people in their class. Is there anyone they need to say sorry to? Do they feel able to go and sort it out?
You may wish to use the following prayer.
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you that you have given us friends.
Please help us to be good friends.
Please help us to sort out arguments quickly
And always to look for good in other people.
Amen.
Song/music
‘You’ve got a friend in me’ from the film Toy Story, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNi02gxTI1M (2.04 minutes long)
Extension activities
- Make a special friendship paper chain. Write the names of your friends and family on strips of paper, join them together in a chain and hang it up somewhere. Then, every time you see your paper chain, you can remember how important it is to care for these people.
- Make some friendship bracelets for your friends. An instruction video is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYU9mSua8zc (10.14 minutes long)
