We haven’t had a friendship unit to start the school year before, so it’s time for one now! You’ll find links to free friendship printables used to prepare hands-on activities and a new Montessori-inspired friendship pack for our newsletter subscribers’ resource library!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Montessori Shelves with Friendship Themed Activities
Montessori Shelves with Friendship-Themed Activities
You’ll find Montessori-inspired friendship numbers, letters, and and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) Note: The Montessori-inspired friendship pack isn’t designed as a complete friendship unit but as supplemental materials. I design the packs using realistic images that I’ve often looked for when preparing a unit study (such as font cards and phonogram cards featuring the letter and phonogram related to the theme and math cards with realistic images that fit the theme and can be adapted for math activities at a variety of levels.)
You could mix your friendship themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special friendship themed area something like the one pictured. My shelves at the beginning of our unit have a mixture of skill levels. Many of the activities can be adapted for a variety of levels. Many of these are designed for early elementary as well as preschoolers. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, simply rotate them.
Montessori Shelves with Friendship-Themed Activities and Best Friends Art Print
Notice the framed art print Best Friends (1934) by Romualdo Locatelli. It’s a free download from Wikiart.
For our monthly featured art print, I purchased a Li’l DAVINCI art frame that opens in the front for easily changing a free art masterpiece printable or vintage illustration to fit with the month’s theme. The frame can be switched from horizontal to vertical without changing the hanger, which is perfect!
If you’re wondering about the rugs and rug box I use, both the rugs and wooden rug holder are from Montessori Services. I love the Montessori Services rugs and rug holder! I used to use an umbrella stand something like these. I loved that for 1-3 rugs, but I needed something different when I had more grandchildren and some projects that needed more than one rug.
Favorite Shelves, Trays, Baskets, and More for Montessori Homeschoolers
I often get asked about the trays, baskets, etc., that I use, so I published a post with many of the items. You can find lots of helpful resources here. They’re not all essential, so don’t feel you need to have everything. Just choose what’s best for your budget and your unique family’s needs. You’ll find more ideas in the Living Montessori Now Amazon shop
Friendship Books for Kids
Even though I have books on shelves, I’m now keeping many of my themed books in a forward-facing display after placing a plant where the themed book basket was before. My seasonal books are now in that book basket.
For toddlers and preschoolers, about ¾ of the books I use are typically Montessori friendly (focusing on reality without smiling or talking animals or smiling or talking vehicles).
For our friendship unit, I have more books with fantasy or unrealistic images than I usually do. Because friendship is an abstract concept, many of the books are perfect for preschoolers who understand the difference between fantasy and reality or for early elementary on up. So many of these books can inspire great conversations!
Books for a Friendship Unit
Top Shelf of Main Themed Shelf:
- The Little Book of Friendship: The Best Way to Make a Friend is to Be a Friend
- Peanut Butter and Cupcake! (A favorite with all my grandkids!)
- How to Be a Friend (open book on easel)
- The Power of One: Every Act of Kindness Counts (A lovely book! From the Amazon book description: “When one child reaches out in friendship to a classmate who seems lonely, she begins a chain reaction of kindness that ripples throughout her school and her community. One kind act begets another, small good deeds make way for bigger ones, and eventually the whole neighborhood comes together to build something much greater than the sum of its parts.”) and Be Kind are on the shelf to the right of the main themed shelf
Top Shelf of Forward -Facing Display:
- Fill a Bucket: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Young Children (just one of the bucket-filler books. See my bucket filling post at my BitsofPositivity.com blog for more!)
- Making Friends by Fred Rogers (The photos look dated because it was published years ago, but the wisdom of Mister Rogers is fabulous!)
- We Can Get Along: A Child’s Book of Choices
2nd Shelf:
- Strictly No Elephants
- How to Spot a Best Friend
- Empathy Is Your Superpower: A Book About Understanding the Feelings of Others
3rd Shelf:
- A Little SPOT Makes Friends: A Story of Friendship
- Don’t Hug Doug: (He Doesn’t Like It) – (a great book about respecting others and their boundaries)
- Kiki & Jax: The Life-Changing Magic of Friendship
4th Shelf:
- Listening Ninja: A Children’s Book About Active Listening and Learning How to Listen
- Teach Your Dragon to Make Friends
- Maddi’s Fridge (an inspiring book about chilldhood hunger and helping a friend in need)
Bottom Shelf
- Friendship According to Humphrey (a fun chapter book about a classroom hamster recommended for ages 7-9)
- Unlikely Friendships for Kids: The Dog & The Piglet: And Four Other Stories of Animal Friendship (a sweet chapter book recommended for ages 7 and up)
- Frog and Toad Are Friends (a classic children’s book about friendship)
- Best Friends
- Friends Help Each Other (I love Daniel Tiger books for teaching young children about friendship! Also, check out my Daniel Tiger free song series at BitsofPositivity.com about a wonderful book with songs about a variety of topics that will help children become better friends and neighbors.)
Reading Corner Shelf with Welcome Books for a Friendship Theme
We have a new reading corner! (I hope to have a video and blog post about it before too long!) This is the floating shelf above our beanbag chair. I plan to have character education books of whatever trait we’re emphasizing. Right now, I have Welcoming Words: A Sesame Street Language Guide for Making Friends, All Are Welcome (one of my favorite books! Read more about it in my Peace Books post.) and We All Belong: A Children’s Book About Diversity, Race, and Empathy on the shelf. Even though I don’t have a classroom, a welcoming, inclusive worldview is one I want to give to my grandchildren.
Peace Table with Peace Rose and Book
I’m also excited about our new peace table! This is something else I’ve been wanting for a long time. It’s right by our reading corner. I’ll have a variety of peace and mindfulness books on the top shelf and in the roomy basket below. I’ve noticed my grandkids tend to choose books from the peace table’s basket, which is wonderful!
Right now, I’m focusing on traits of good friends, such as kindness, empathy, compassion, and helpfulness. The book in front in the basket is I Am Love: A Book of Compassion. On the table top, I love our wooden peace rosewooden peace rose (I think a real rose, wooden rose, or silk rose is a good option) and The Peace Rose. The book helps children know how to use the peace rose for conflict resolution. You can read more about the book in my Peace Books post.
Shelf with Golden Rule Books
On a shelf across the room, I have these Golden Rule books:
You can also see lots of friendship books as they’re published here.
The Little Book of Friendship with Friendship Activities
The Little Book of Friendship with Friends Activities
The Little Book of Friendship: The Best Way to Make a Friend is to Be a Friend
Free Printable: Friendship Activities with Emergent Reader Distance Learning by Nancy Wilcox Richards Canada at Teachers Pay Teachers
On this tray, I plan to keep activities that will emphasize the characteristics of a friend.
Peanut Butter & Cupcake Book and Go-Together Activity
Peanut Butter & Cupcake Book and Go-Together Activity
Peanut Butter and Cupcake! book
Free Printable: Peanut Butter & Cupcake: A Friendship Building Activity by Peggys This and That Speech Shop at Teachers Pay Teachers
My grandkids all LOVE this book! It’s so silly … and a fun way to start a discussion of friendship and things that go together. There are a number of puzzle pieces that go together along with 3 puzzle pieces aobut friends, classes, and schools. Because I’m using this with my grandkids, I just printed out the “We go together as friends” piece to discuss that sisters and cousins can be friends as well as relatives.
How to Be a Friend Book with Friendship Activities in the Background
How to Be a Friend Book with Friendship Activities in the Background
The open book on the easel is How to Be a Friend.
You’ll see more friendship (kindness) books in the background along with friendship activities. You can find the links and resources lower in this post.
Friendship Sand Writing Tray
Friendship Sand Writing Tray
Free Printables: Help letter “h” and play “ay” phonogram for sand writing tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
You’ll see a variety of simple letter writing trays in my previous unit study posts. I often used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though.
The sandpaper letters I use are available in print or cursive.
I typically now use this lovely spelling/alphabet tray from FamilyTreeWW on Etsy. I like it for writing more than one letter or spelling words.
If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.
“Ay” in Play Phonogram Work
“Ay” in Play Phonogram Work
Free Printables: “ay” in play phonogram card (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
Friends Alphabet Cards in Print (available in print or cursive in my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
Free Printable: Ay Sound Printables from MontessoriSoul
These activities are very simple to prepare, but they help children remember the phonogram when it’s paired with the unit’s theme. I have a post and video on how to introduce words starting with phonograms, even with very young children (although I don’t introduce phonograms to very young children except in a word like “shark” that can’t be explained as starting with /s/).
Friendship Spinner Spelling Activity
Friendship Spinner Spelling Game
Free Printable: Friendship Spinner by Kinderpond at Teachers Pay Teachers
I like to have children play this as a cooperative game where they spin the spinner and work together to complete the letters of the word. Younger children could simply add a marker, such as a glass gem, to each space as the spinner lands on it. Older children could write the letters.
Fish Friends Rhyming Emergent Reader Cut and Paste
Fish Friends Rhyming Emergent Reader Cut and Paste
Free Printable: Fish Friends Rhyming Emergent Reader Cut and Paste – A Friendship Rainbow by Kidsparkz at Teachers Pay Teachers
This printable can be used to focus on a variety of activities from color identification to reading the words in the emergent reader. It’s a fun cut cut-and-paste activity.
Friends Addition Activity
Friends Addition Activity
Free Printable: friends numbers and symbols (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
I love the little multicultural kid stickers I found. I stuck them on 12 mm wood circles. There are many of the stickers in a pack, so they can be used for a variety of activities. I used a dice with 2 sets of number cards 1-6, 1 set of number cards 7-12, and the addition equation symbols. Of course, you can use these cards for simple counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or greater than, and less than. You can use whatever type of counters you prefer
The Power of One – Every Act of Kindness Counts Book with Friendship House Craft
The Power of One – Every Act of Kindness Counts Book with Friendship House Craft
The Power of One: Every Act of Kindness Counts
Free Printable: Friendship House Craft by Mrs. Millis at Teachers Pay Teachers
This is a fun friendship craft with a friendship house containing windows that say A Good Friend Is….. kind, helpful, caring, loving, honest, fair, happy, gentle, and a good listener.
Be Kind Book and Friendship Bingo
Be Kind Book and Friendship Bingo
Be Kind Book
Free Printable: Friendship Bingo by ELSA Support at Teachers Pay Teachers
This bingo game has sweet photos of animal friendships and friend characteristics that can spark conversations. With a friendship theme especially, I like to make the games cooperative, so I would have the children work together to fill one page.
Free Printable: Beginning of Year Friendship Bingo Game by Adventure in Elementary – Samantha Carter (I added this to the tray after a couple of weeks.)
Free Friendship Pack
Montessori-Inspired Friendship Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).
More Friendship Resources
- Montessori-Inspired Peace Education Activities
- How to Prepare a Peace Corner
- Montessori-Inspired Friendship Activities
- Free Friendship Songs and Rhymes {Character Education Resources}
- Free Taking Turns and Sharing Songs and Rhymes {Character Education Resources}
- How to Teach Toddlers and Preschoolers to Take Turns and Work Together
- The Best Children’s Books about Taking Turns and Sharing
- How to Prepare a Montessori Peace Tray
- Montessori Services Peace Activities and Resources Review
- Our Favorite Picture Book about Inclusion and Friendship
- Does Your Preschooler Have This Fabulous Multicultural Children’s Book?
- Anti-Racism Resources for Parents and Teachers
- How to Prepare a Book Basket That Encourages Kindness
- Free Empathy Songs and Educational Videos {Character Education Resources}
- Fostering Kids’ Friendships Pinterest Board
If you’d like ideas for calendar-based themes throughout August and September, see my August Themed Activities for Kids and September Themed Activities for Kids.
Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!
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