Friendch Fries

I was out shopping for after Christmas deals and came across this toy on the clearance shelf at Target. It was really cheap!!

So, I stood there thinking to myself that I could find a use for it (probably a common thought of most educators) and in my buggy it went. Inside this McDonald's cup was a bunch of plastic food items. I screwed off the lid, took out the plastic food and placed them into a rice cool down/sensory box. Then, as I was planning for a first grade friendship group, the idea of Friendch Fries popped into my mind! Ahhh....a use for the McDonald's cup!

I purchased some colored popsicle sticks (both large and small). On the yellow popsicle sticks (the Friendch Fries), I wrote general statements/rules for having quality friendships. I also pulled out some green popsicle sticks to be used as rotten or burnt Friendch Fries. On the green sticks, the students will assist me in writing behaviors that might turn a potential friend away. Since I was going to be using this activity with first graders, I used only these statements/rules. Certainly there are many more that could be used and adjusted depending on which grade level you are working with.

After finding a clip art picture of french fries in a red wrapper, I enlarged it to roughly a 5x7 size. I printed enough of these so that each student had one. Next, I found clip art to go with each of the statements/rules on the yellow popsicle stick Friendch Fries. I reduced these images in size so that when cut-out and glued, they would all fit on the 5x7 clip art picture of the french fries.  For example, for the "Hula Hoop Rule" I have a small picture of a hula hoop. For "Be Safe" I have a picture of orange caution construction cones. For "Listen" I have an ear. You get the point. Students got one 5x7 clip art picture of french fries (I wrote Friendch Fries on the red fry container) and a sheet with all the smaller pictures on it.

One by one we went through each statement/rule. The students cut-out the corresponding picture and glued it to their Friendch Fries sheet. I saved each student's sheet because next week we will role-play each of the rules/statements -- picking a Friendch Fry out of the McDonald's container one at a time and doing some acting. We will also come up with the poor friendship skills to indicate on the green rotten/burnt Friendch Fries and will  role-play those.

After the next session, the students will take home their Friendch Fries sheet -- to teach their parents the friendship statements/rules that they learned.