How to Be a Good Friend

About this resource

How to be a good friend, in pictures, for kindergarten through grade 5. A chart of six friend skills (kind words, take turns, share, include others, say sorry, help), a short picture story about recess, and cards the student cuts and sorts: friend choice or not yet. Then worksheets where the student circles, rewrites and draws, a friend check to color, and a log that turns it into something practiced all week.

EVERYTHING INSIDE — 33 pages

• A good friend chart: 6 friend skills, each with a picture and a short kid line (color page and black-and-white ink-saver page)
• A picture story, "Recess With a Friend": 8 pictures on 2 pages, with generic characters any student can be
• A sort mat: two sides, FRIEND CHOICE and NOT YET, with 12 card-sized boxes
• 12 friend choice sort cards to cut, 4 across and 3 down (each with a picture, a word and a line to read): share my snack, wait my turn, ask a kid to play, say I'm sorry, pick up a kid's books and say something nice (friend choice); grab a toy, cut in line, leave a kid out, laugh at a mistake, walk away and say it was not me (not yet)
• The same 12 sort cards in black-and-white ink-saver
• A skill mat with 12 card-sized boxes, 2 under each of the 6 friend skills
• 12 scenario cards to cut, 6 across and 3 down, 2 for each skill (a kid finishes a drawing, two kids want the slide, a kid has no pencil, and more), plus 6 blank scenario cards
• 24 blank sort cards (16 on a page of their own, plus a row of 4 under each set of sort cards): the student draws a picture and writes their own words
• Friend Choice or Not Yet? 8 everyday moments on 2 pages: the student reads each one and circles one
• Try Again: 3 not-yet moments with room to write a friend choice and a friend thing to say
• My Friend Skills: draw or write a time for each of the 6 skills
• My Friend Plan: draw a time a friend needed me, check a skill, write what I will do and say
• My Friend Check: 15 circles (5 days, 3 times a day) to color when the student was a good friend
• A how-to page and an answer key for the sort cards, the 12 scenario cards and the 8 moments, with room for your classroom's own rules
• A Friend Skills Log (20 rows: date, when, skill, used it Y/N, initials)
• A weekly roll-up (8 weeks) with a percent graph
• A filled example: an invented student, one week on the log, three weeks on the roll-up and the skills that came up across all three
• A family page with 6 small skill cards to cut apart and a note home
• A hand-off page so a paraprofessional or another classroom uses the same chart the same way
• A phrase bank: 23 lines in 6 groups (spoken lines for the chart, story and cards; written starters for the log, the roll-up and the note home)
• A storage and binder label sheet: 12 labels and a spine strip
• Start Here, a contents page that maps every page, and a "what's next" back page

The Student Pages

Every student page has a "My name" line, one short instruction with a picture, big pictures and big rounded words, and room to circle, color, draw or write. The scenes are everyday ones from the classroom and the playground. The student in the filled example is invented.

The Cards

Twelve sort cards and twelve scenario cards. Use them on the mats, in a small group, as a quick sort at the desk, or hand a student two or three at a time. A blank card holds any moment that is not printed here, and your classroom's own rules come first.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF: type into the name lines, the log, the roll-up, the family page, the hand-off page and the blank cards, or print and use a pen. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT an editable online slideshow or word-processor document.

Who This Is For

Teachers, counselors, special education teachers and paraprofessionals who want a concrete, picture-based way to teach friendship skills in kindergarten through grade 5, and the families who get the home page.

More In The Collection

This set is in the Visual Supports Collection, alongside Social Story: Being a Good Friend, Friendship Skills Cue Cards and Log, Apology Picture Cards and Empathy Task Cards and Worksheets. Free to try first: Visual Supports Starter Set FREE.

Pictures (color pages): Noto Emoji by Google, Apache License 2.0. Pictures (ink-saver pages): Fluent Emoji, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, MIT License.