5.2 Clique Busters: Part 1

Items Needed:

Login to the Harmony website and copy/print the WHAT MAKES A FRIEND? WORKSHEET (one per student): https://online.harmonysel.org/grade-4-what-makes-a-friend-worksheet/ Links to an external site.
Familiarize yourself with the EXCLUSION SCRIPT- TEACHER GUIDE: https://online.harmonysel.org/grade-4-exclusion-script-teacher-guide/ Links to an external site.

Set the Stage:

Facilitate a discussion about cliques, how they can be exclusionary and harmful, and how to avoid them.

Having a group of friends is important and fun.

Friends offer us support when we need it and give us the opportunity to practice skills, such as listening, sharing experiences, and being respectful.

There are times friendship groups can be challenging or may do things that are hurtful.

Sometimes a group excludes others, saying they can’t hang out with them because they are different in some way.

These types of groups often set up rules for being in the group—they may even kick people out and tell them they won’t be friends anymore if they hang out with someone they don’t like.

These types of groups are called cliques. A clique is a group of people who exclude others, and often have strict rules that group members must follow if they want to stay in the group.

Explain to the students that they will do an exercise to help them imagine what it feels like to be excluded from their peers and not have anyone to hang out with at school.

Ask students to close their eyes, put their heads down on their desks, and imagine themselves in the situation you will read.

Read the Peer Exclusion Script in the Exclusion Script-Teacher Guide out loud to students.

When you are finished reading the script, ask students to slowly open their eyes.

Ask students how they would feel if this situation happened to them. Have them rate their feeling level from 1 (very mild) to 5 (very strong).

Continue discussing the situation.
- Can you imagine something like this really happening to someone at school?
- Can you identify the cliques in this situation?
- Would you ever want to be in this situation?
- Would you ever want to put someone else in this situation?

Activity:

Instruct students on how to fill out the What Makes a Friend Worksheet.

Distribute the What Makes a Friend Worksheet to each student.

We have spent some time thinking about which personal characteristics make a friend, and what this class likes to do with friends for fun.

Instruct students that for every item in the Characteristics column, they should think about how much they want their friends to be similar to versus different from them.

Students should place an X in the “You” column if the characteristic is true about themselves.
Place an X in the “Friend” column if they are looking for that in a friend.
Write “DM” in the Friend column if it doesn’t matter if their friend has that characteristic.

Have students complete the What Makes a Friend Worksheet.

Circulate the classroom and provide assistance as necessary.

If time allows, have students compare responses in class.