IN PICTURES: Celebrating Friendship Week at Ballymoney Model Integrated Primary School

Year 1 pupils talked about what they liked to do with their friends and the importance of being a good friend. Pupils created a Circle of Friends display by designing a representation of themselves. Year 1 pupils made a promise to always try to be a good friend to others.

To celebrate Friendship Week, Year 2 pupils enjoyed a range of activities and discussions. During Circle Time the pupils discussed what makes a good friend. Throughout different lessons the pupils were given the opportunity to complete some super activities, such as, a friendly/unfriendly sorting activity, a friendship freeze dance and listening to the Starry-Eyed Stan story. Finally, everyone got extremely artistic and created amazing friendships flowers with their classmates during their Art and Design lesson.

The children in Year 3 enjoyed taking part in lots of activities during Friendship Week. They read ‘Don’t Worry Little Crab’ by Chris Haughton and had some great discussions about trusting their friends. Everyone worked together to create a model of a ship and made sure everyone was onboard! "What kind of ship will never sink? A friendSHIP”.

Friendship Week was celebrated in Year 4 by the pupils discussing the attributes of a good friend. Using their ICT skills, friendship posters were created to show why their friend was special. During Literacy, Personal Development and Mutual Understanding and Circle Time class sessions, stories about friendship were discussed and adjectives selected to best describe what makes a good friend. These were displayed in a variety of Art and Design activities by making creative rainbow clouds, octopus and friend pictures.

Mrs Mack’s class completed a number of activities during Friendship Week. During Using ICT lessons, the pupils used the Just2Easy website to complete anti-bullying tasks, such as, creating odd sock designs on the computer and a sorting activity to identify qualities of a good friend vs not a good friend. There were opportunities to discuss how to be a good friend to others within Circle Time and to create a Circle of Friends display during an Art and Design lesson.