If you find that your students are having trouble distinguishing between friend and bully behavior, this lesson might help. Here they will explore the difference by creating webs of each and comparing them.
Materials: Blank sheet of paper for each child, pencils, chart paper, white board or electronic whiteboard.
Procedure: 1. Make two evenly spaced bubbles on chart paper or electronic whiteboard. Write Friends inside of one and Bullies inside of the other.
2. Ask students for ideas of what either a friend or a bully does. Fill in a bubble or two on board.
3. Pass out blank paper. Ask students to copy what is on the board then fill in more ideas. Monitor their progress.
4. When most of them are finished ask students to share responses. Fill in more bubbles on class chart.
5. Once done you can display the chart as a reminder and tell children to add any new bubbles they come up with to their own charts.
Follow up: Whenever there are conflicts the teacher can simply point to the chart to remind students what it means to be a friend.
Laurie Woodward 