Friendship Salad is always a great beginning of the year activity. We always start our year off with this salad, and then we make it again in the beginning of the new year, after winter break. Just like a great book, a great object lesson can be shared again and again. Sometimes different children remember it the second time if they didn’t really ‘get’ it the first time.
There are many variations to this activity. I like simple, and really should have named this post, “Semi-Homemade Friendship Salad,” and Sandra Lee would be proud! Here is how I make mine:
You will need:
a large bowl
a large mixing spoon
paper bowls (or plates)
plastic spoons
different fruits you want to use
I use mixed fruit, pineapple, peaches, mandarin oranges, and a yellow banana. Many of these canned fruits have a pull tab top which makes it very easy to use in the classroom.
maraschino cherries (or just use the canned fruit with extra cherries in it!)
marshmallows
Cool Whip or yogurt
1 yellow banana
1 rotten banana
You may use fresh fruit and have an adult classroom helper cut the fruit for the salad. I prefer to use canned fruit, because it’s just simpler for this activity and the lesson I want the children to get from the salad.
I have the children sitting in a big circle on the rug as we add ingredients. I call up a different child to add each ingredient. After each ingredient is added, I walk the bowl around the circle to show the children.
Explain to the children that the big bowl is like our classroom.
The mixed fruit represents all of us mixed together in our new class family.
Then I add other fruit and tell what it represents. (You can make this fit your classroom expectations.)
The pineapple is when we help each other.
The peaches are when we are a ‘peach’ and share with friends.
The mandarin oranges are when we are good listeners and hard workers.
The yellow banana is when we make good choices. (I cut this with a plastic knife as I add this to the salad.)
The maraschino cherries are when we use sweet, kind words.
The marshmallows are all the sweet, fun, happy things we will do in our classroom, full of friends.
The Cool Whip (or yogurt) is when we ‘hold hands and stick together’ by being good friends, watching out for each other in and OUT of the classroom. (This is a good time to talk about playing with each other on the playground if someone doesn’t have a friend or sitting by someone who is alone at lunch, just like you would a brother or sister.)
I mix all these ingredients together, then walk it around the circle for the children to ‘oooh’ and ‘aaah’ about it.
Then, I take out the black banana and start to put that into the salad. OF COURSE it is horrible, and we quickly revisit the yellow banana to remember that was added because we make good choices. It would NOT be a good choice to add a rotten banana into our special salad, just like it is not a good choice to be a rotten banana in our special class family.
This is a perfect time to make the connection with your students about being a class family, working together, being kind, helping each other, and being great listeners and hard workers. (Reviewing classroom rules!)
It’s also such a good object lesson that the children refer back to all year. You’ll hear them say, “We don’t want any rotten bananas in here!” if someone isn’t doing something kind.
These are some of my favorite books to use with this lesson, but any friendship books are great!
(You can stretch this book out and do a few parts at a time.)
Peanut Butter and Cupcake is a great book about making friends.
These books are great lessons about the importance of sharing. Friends share.
When we make our own Rainbow Fish, I use left over sparkly silver bulletin board border to make the scales.
Dr. Jean and I have different character education activities, as well as activities and songs for all subject areas, in each of our monthly HAPPIES packets! You can find these at Dr. Jean’s website or at my TpT Store!
Have fun and thank you for stopping by!
Happies for Teachers 