Educator Guide
Friendship and Kindness Activities That Respect Children’s Choices
Practise invitations, listening and shared decisions with fictional scenarios, cooperative games and optional appreciation activities.
Friendship & kindness · Ages 5–12; adult-supported small groups · 40-minute sample session
Teach a useful action rather than rewarding children for looking friendly. A meaningful invitation explains a game and leaves room for “no”; helpfulness includes asking before changing someone’s work. Give children language and practical choices they can try in a fictional situation before applying them to a real interaction.
Do not require friendships, public compliments or personal stories. Children can practise respect while choosing different interests, a quiet role or time apart.
Set up
Fictional scenario cards, a simple cooperative game plan, drawing materials and optional welcome cards. No gifts or purchased rewards are needed.
Teaching activities
Practise an invitation with an exit
Give a pair a fictional game to explain. One person practises a clear invitation and offers a quieter role. The other can accept, ask a question or decline. Switch roles and discuss which wording left a genuine choice. Do not require a real child to invite a particular classmate as a public test.
Sort actions and improve the wording
Use simple fictional actions such as borrowing without asking or listening to an idea. Ask what makes each action helpful or unhelpful. Change an unhelpful action into something the character could try next. Discuss the action rather than labelling a real child as kind or unkind.
Plan a cooperative challenge
Choose a shared drawing or a paper design task with several roles. Agree on the goal and a way to take turns. Pause midway to ask whose idea has not yet been heard. An observer or recorder can contribute without being the presenter or the fastest maker.
Use bingo as a discussion game
Read a kindness card or calling item and ask for a fictional example. Let children cover a matching space without proving they completed a personal good deed. This keeps the game about recognising actions, rather than a competition for public virtue. Accept passing and a non-competitive finish.
A 40-minute session plan
- 5 minutes: Introduce one fictional friendship problem.
- 8 minutes: Practise invitations and respectful refusals.
- 10 minutes: Sort and improve fictional actions.
- 12 minutes: Try a cooperative design or game plan.
- 5 minutes: Name a useful phrase or a change for next time.
Printables to use
Choose the resource that supports your purpose, preview its instructions and select the available paper size. One well-used sheet is enough for a short session.
- Welcome to Our Game Cards — Write an invitation with a clear role and a genuine choice to decline.
- Kind or Unkind Scenario Sorting — Discuss fictional actions and constructive alternatives.
- Our Cooperative Game Plan — Agree on a shared goal, roles and a way to check participation.
- Friendship Conversation Cards — Use optional or imaginary examples for paired talk.
- Kindness Bingo — Discuss respectful actions without requiring evidence of personal good deeds.
Adapt for the group
Offer picture-based scenarios and model one sentence. Use a partner scribe and roles with different social demands. Older learners can identify an unintended effect of a helpful-seeming action. Respect a child’s choice not to discuss friendships or participate in public appreciation.
Notice and reflect
Notice permission-seeking, clearer invitations, turn-taking and a changed plan that includes another idea. Do not infer the quality of a child’s real friendships from a worksheet or reward forced sharing.
Research and further reading
ACECQA’s play, leisure and intentionality guidance discusses relationships and thoughtful educator participation. The activities here translate that general planning context into original practice situations, not a checklist for judging children’s personalities.
Source information checked 15 October 2026. The teaching activities and sample plans are original suggestions from After School Care Printables; source links do not imply endorsement. Check current local curriculum and service requirements when planning.