While many preschool students innately learn how to make friends, become friends, and be good friends, it is extremely important for their social growth to have explicit opportunities to practice and learn about friendship. Families with strong social bonds make it easier for children, but those that do not have these bonds tend to struggle and take a little longer to learn these skills.
Read below about 40+ fun activities you can do to help preschoolers learn and practice friendship.
1. Story Time: Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister
Marcus Pfister has been teaching young kids through his book, Rainbow Fish, for over 20 years. Rainbow Fish learns a hard lesson while teaching youngsters what’s really important.
Learn More: StoryTime at Awnie’s House
2. Story Time: Friends, by Helme Heine
Another classic story about friendship keeps preschoolers engaged with a friendship theme, this focuses on how friends can do everything together, but also need to spend time apart.
Learn More: Let’s Read with Mrs. Jen
3. Fill a Bucket Storytelling Kit
Preschoolers LOVE this book and the accompanying activity. Kids learn kindness through the eyes of “filling the bucket” of others. Acts of kindness and good deeds improve friendship, lead to friendship and keep friendships.
Learn More: Lakeshore Learning
4. Thumbprint Friendship Necklaces
Have kids participate in this fun, hands-on craft using large beads, string, and air-hardening clay. Creating something from hand and then gifting it to others teaches how to put thought into a gift and how to gracefully receive a gift.
Learn More: Pinterest
5. Kind Words Friendship Sensory Lesson
Making friends takes kind words. This activity helps make a kinesthetic connection with those skills using sandpaper which doesn’t feel so pleasant, and cotton balls which are soft and fluffy as kids learn how to interact with one another.
Learn More: Preschool Powol Packets
6. “I Like You” Friendship Rhyme
Having kids use this as an activity opener with this adorable rhyme is a great way to reinforce friendship. Sung to the tune of “Are You Sleeping” it will become a simple, catchy tune your preschoolers will be singing for a long time.
Learn More: Pinterest
7. I Can be a Super Friend Social Story
Social stories and friendship stories are simple, highly graphic stories that preschoolers can easily follow and understand because of the visuals. This one is adorable and printable. Simply laminate and clip them together for your preschoolers.
Learn More: Engaging Preschool Minds
8. Create a Friendship Wreath
Have all the students work together to create handprints for a wreath that will all be put together and then displayed in the classroom as a reminder to every one of the friendships that are in the room.
Learn More: Preschool Playbook
9. Who is Being A Friend
Use this as an individual activity, or as a whole class activity on a large poster to initiate the conversation of friendship with your preschoolers. The images serve as a way for kids who can’t read to determine if the kids are being friends or not.
Learn More: Firstie Land
10. Make Some Friendship Salad
Starting the discussion about friends with preschoolers with a sweet fruit salad is a way to immediately grab their attention and get them going. When they are done helping to make the salad, they can eat it and enjoy it as a whole class of friends.
Learn More: Kinder Gals
11. Look How We Fit Together
Your preschoolers will be amazed at this activity because when it’s finished, you’ll be able to put every piece that each child creates together! Give them some finger paint, ask for a photo from home, and then help each child create a one-of-a-kind piece that fits with their friends!
Learn More: Really Good Stuff
12. Words Hurt Lesson Activity
This really graphic activity will help very young students with their social skills. Teaching them that some words aren’t nice really gives them a place to start the building blocks of great friendships.
Learn More: Hey Teacher
13. Host a Friendsgiving
Thanksgiving is a time that many of us utilize to teach thankfulness, but what about friendship? This kit includes fun activities for preschoolers centered around celebrating not only being thankful but thankful for friendship. Use it as a complete class party, or simply restrict your class to just the activities.
Learn More: Crayon Box Creations
14. Rainbow Fish Activity
Don’t just READ Rainbow Fish, especially when you have an awesome resource like this one! These friendship-themed activities could provide an entire week of awesome things to do around centered around the idea of friendship building, and it will tie back to the book flawlessly!
Learn More: Little Stars Education
15. Make a Friendship Chain
Download the free template below and have your little ones decorate with friendship fingerprints, colorful construction paper, watercolor, tempera paint, or just crayons, and then display the chain in the room to keep their friendships in plain view.
Learn More: Pinterest
16. Create a Friendship Story
Friendship in preschool is a pretty abstract idea. This adorable story and friendship art activity help the idea to become less abstract by having kids color the pages together, and then sit together and read the story as a whole class.
Learn More: KidSparkz
17. Use a Pocket Chart to Display Good vs. Poor Friendships
Create a space in your room to display examples of students being good friends and what it looks like when they are not. This helps them to visualize, remember, and remind one another of what good friendship is.
Learn More: Mrs. Jones’s Creation Station
18. Friendship Blocks
These friendship blocks (or tubes) help kids learn to remember one another, but also drive home the fact that they are all connected. Kids love building their classes with them and have many uses within the classroom.
Learn More: Teach Preschool
19. Make Friendship Stew
This is great for Valentine’s day or any day, really. Students can participate by adding their own pieces as you call for them to create this recipe which doubles as a sensory bin!
Learn More: Turner Tots
20. Nobody Hugs a Cactus, by Cater Goodrich Read Aloud
This sweet book about a little cactus really teaches kids that sometimes even the people with the most thorns need love too.
Learn More: Reading Rhino
21. Try a Compliment Circle to Build Friendship
Preschoolers are never too young to learn how to compliment one another. Try to focus on simple compliments, to begin with, and then when you revisit the idea later you can focus on more personality/virtue type compliments.
Learn More: Paige Bessick
22. Introduce the “Friendasaurus”
This adorable idea works great for a dinosaur-themed lesson, but will work in any preschool setting because, let’s face it, what kid doesn’t love dinosaurs?
Learn More: Pinterest
23. Do You See Our Friend Song
Help kids remember the names of their friends in class while teaching them the importance of calling one another by name with this sweet song sung to the tune of “Do You Know the Muffin Man?”
Learn More: Teaching Mama
24. Sit or Stand
While this particular version is made for Kindergarten, it can easily be tweaked for preschool by changing a few of the options around. It gets kids up and moving as they decide if they like or don’t like specific things, and helps them determine who in their classroom has the same preferences!
Learn More: Pinterest
25. Should I Share My Ice Cream, by Mo Willems Activity and Book
Mo Willems is an amazing author who catches the interest of all kids. His characters, Elephant and Piggie teach kids how sharing is an important part of friendship in this adorable and hilarious book. Couple it with this read-aloud activity of friendship ice cream to complete the perfect lesson.
Learn More: Sunny Day Family
26. F is for Friends Coloring Activity
Teach kids what friendship is and the letter it starts with! “F is for friend” is a great discussion point, dexterity activity, and coloring sheet that can be printed on white paper or colored paper and then decorated to display within the classroom.
Learn More: KidSparkz
27. Friendship Theme-Under the sea
A cute video that shows how hard it can be if you are rejected by others and you need to introduce yourself to new people and ask if you can join in. This is something that can be acted out in role-play afterward.
Learn More: Youtube
28. Fun activities with paper dolls
This is so funny and your preschoolers will love it! Follow the step-by-step instructions to make your preschool class into paper dolls with real pictures so that the kids can have role play activities with paper dolls creating friendship stories that happen at school that make them have different feelings.
Learn More: Pinterest
29. Be my best friend – Preschool Friendship activities
Reading and story time is a great moments to connect with little ones. Here are 18 stories that teach about friendship and how to not be an enemy to others. The kids will love the colorful illustrations and the message that is told.
Learn More: 41 Adorable Children’s Books About Friendship
30. Team Building Skills
Part of being a good friend is learning how to work in a team. Sometimes that is easier said than done with preschool children who are very territorial. With these games and activities, you can encourage them to work together on challenges and create bonds.
Learn More: Confidence Meets Parenting
31. Tips for Teachers and Educators to Help with Social Growth
Sometimes the day goes by so fast and we forget to use kind words, or help others. Take a step back and remind yourself to be a friend to someone. Getting children to help others and learn emotional skills.
Learn More: ECMHC
32. Ten songs to sing in the classroom and teach to preschool children
Kids will love to sing them in circle time and if you have some flashcards you can show them while you are singing. kids can hold hands and dance around too, great fun being friends.
Learn More: Music for Kiddos
33. Homeschool or in the Classroom
Children have to know what makes a good friend, and how to be kind and respectful. Stories, playing with play dough, and learning what your new friend’s name is and things they like. Arts and crafts and lots more.
Learn More: Stay at Home Educator
34. Friendship bands and bracelets
While the children are stringing beads on friendship bracelets, they can see the colorful different beads and talk about how we are all alike but have different qualities too. Children can make their bracelets and then everyone gets to exchange them with the student next to them.
Learn More: Youtube
35. Nursery Rhyme – “Make new friends but keep the old”
This is a classic song and it really is so easy to sing along to and kids can learn the hand gestures that go with its ASL style. This is a cute video too to play in the class and teach the song ASL. Loved by everyone.
Learn More: Youtube
36. Friendship Quilt
This is a way to gather all the children together and they work as a unit to complete the quilt with messages of kindness, friendship, and pictures of love for their classmates and friends. Easy to do and they will be so proud of what they have accomplished. Hang it on the classroom wall.
Learn More: Pinterest
37. Friendship and Classmates Memory Game
Have a small photo of each child from the class and make colored copies so that you can cut out and stick all of the class onto construction paper to make a memory game. Then each student in the class can have their own set to play with.
Learn More: No Time for Flashcards
38. Magic Mirror for preschool teachers
We all would love a magic mirror in our house to tell us good things about ourselves. What a nice person we are or a good friend, or how well we do something. To give us praise and to remind us to stay positive and be friends with everyone. This video tutorial looks tricky but it’s great and it is easy to do. It is a one-time investment you won’t regret.
Learn More: Youtube
39. Celebrate International Friendship Day
On this website, there are 15 ways to celebrate and honor international friendship day. Whether it is making a book or coloring a poem, or watching a video about how special you are and what a good friend you make. Click on the link for more.
Learn More: Ric Publications
40. Peanut Butter and Cupcake Reading with Friends
Take compound words that go together like Peanut Butter, Cupcake, or things that we usually relate together like cookies and milk. put the words and pictures on construction paper and Popsicle sticks and have the kids find their “friend”.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
41. My Favorite item- share day
When kids share their likes and dislikes they are opening up and they can see if they have things in common with others or not. Sometimes children are excited to be friends who like the same things and others are excited to hear about something new. We all have something to share.
Learn More: ESL Kids Stuff
42. Friendship Tea
Have the children create a class tea party with lots of “printable or pretend food and plastic cups and saucers. Serve water or juice in the teapots and remind them that friends share and drink tea together. They are kind and polite and you can talk about what it means to be a good friend.
Learn More: The Educators’ Spin On It
43. Friendship Yarn Game
Here’s a classic circle game that your children will really get a kick out of! With this friendship yarn game, you’ll help them realize how we’re all connected. Simply invite each of them to throw a ball of yarn to their peers while prompting them to say something positive about their chosen friend.
Learn More: Fabulous Fabris
44. Circle time “Me too” adapt to age.
Have the kids sit in a circle and one student stands up and says an affirmative statement. ” I like dogs.” and if anyone in the group agrees they put their hands in the air and shout me too! Great communication skills game.
Learn More: Youtube
45. Friendly musical chairs
No pushing, shoving, or fighting to get the last chair. Use big chairs or cushions so that 2 or 3 can fit on one chair. follow the instructions of the game and you will see that children are laughing and sharing space to let another friend join in on the fun!
Learn More: The Early Childhood Academy
46. How to be a friend and keep them – Storytime
Dinosaurs are the main characters here and they are telling us such a cute tale on the concepts of kindness, how to be humble, and think of others. How to share and do nice things for your friends. Great for circle time.
Learn More: Amazon
47. Friends at the school slide show
Take snaps of the children playing at recess, working together in class, and eating at lunchtime. Then with an easy program, you can make a friendship slide share or movie with the kids’ names and qualities to show how friendly your class is.
Learn More: Keeping My Kiddos Busy
48. Song time!
This song is to the tune of Mary had a little lamb. Quite easy to learn and color the lyrics on a printable. Children can dance, sing and act out this song. Good fun and great to be in the line when waiting to go to the class.
Learn More: Pinterest
3 Little Kittens Preschool Activities: Hands-On Ideas, Printables, Crafts, And Literacy Practice