Best friends make the world a better place.
Having positive and loving relationships with friends is important to our children’s wellbeing – and our own. Friendship isn’t always easy, but it is rewarding. It helps us see things from someone else’s point of view, teaches us lifelong skills like sharing and how to communicate our emotions with others, and contributes to greater emotional resilience and mental health.
Celebrate National Best Friends Day on June 8th by embracing togetherness and helping promote healthy friendships using the tips, activities and crafts below!
Tips for Creating Strong Friendships
Growing Early Friendships
Grade PreK
The process of developing social skills is like the Wild West: lots of drama, adventure, and the occasional stand-off. Here are some tips for navigating first friendships from birth to three.
Helping Young Children Learn to Make Friends
Grades PreK-3
The ability to make and keep friends doesn’t just make kids happy; it also provides a number of crucial developmental benefits, including self-esteem, companionship and peer guidance. These become important later as children transition from focusing on parents to prioritizing peer relationships by the teen years, so why not start early?
Getting Along: How “Arthur” Can Help Your Child Manage Friendships
Grades PreK-3
Watching Arthur with your child offers many opportunities to talk about friendship since his adventures almost always involve his friends. Get tips for how to make the most while you watch, and what to discuss after the show to help your child relate the story to his or her own life. And check out some additional tips for helping your child cope with the ups and downs of friendships.
How to Connect with Long-Distance Loved Ones
Grades PreK-3
As much as it’s nice for family and friends to live close by, that’s not always possible. With creativity and commitment, there are lots of ways to help your kids connect with far away loved ones.
Activities, Crafts & More
Amigos | Sesame Street
Grades PreK-K
Sing along with this Spanish melody about friendship! Discover the joy of spending time with amigos, or friends.
Make a Book About Friends Activity
Grades PreK-K
Young children are learning what it means to be a friend. Friends like to play together. Sometimes they have different ideas about what they want to do and conflicts arise. We can help children learn to listen to each other and continue to play. Working things out is what friends do.
15 Children’s Books About Friendship
Grades PreK-3
Books allow us to watch the dynamics of friendships play out in the lives of storybook characters and then talk about what we observe. Here are 15 books that can help us start conversations with our kids about what it means to be a friend.
Friendship Cuff Bracelets
Grades K-3
Friendship bracelets have never been cooler (or easier to make) than these awesome cuff bracelets you can make from TP rolls! Each TP roll will make two bracelets, so your child can make one for herself and one for her BFF.
Let’s Go Luna! Postcards
Grades 1-5
Do you have a pen pal or family member who lives far away? Print out these Let’s Go Luna! postcards and send them a note saying just how much they mean to you!