5 Ways to Celebrate World Friendship Day
World Friendship Day is celebrated annually on the 30th of July. The occasion is all about celebrating love, kindness, and inclusion, as well as exploring what it means to be a good friend. With the day fast approaching, we’ve put together a list of different ways you can celebrate. You can extend the activities below by engaging your child in conversations about their friends at nursery, discussing ways in which to include others and demonstrate kindness.
- Make Your Own Friendship Bracelets
Get creative and make your own friendship bracelets together! There are plenty of ways your child can get involved with the crafting here, and doing so can also help them to improve their fine motor and concentration skills. Using soft fabric strips, help your child to twist the materials together before tying the ends in a knot to secure. You can also do the same with ribbon or yarn. Encourage your child to hand them out to their friends at nursery or have a friendship bracelet exchange session on a playdate.
- Friendship Colour Mixing
A great one for your child to try with their friends at nursery or at home, this activity requires washable finger paints, plastic sheets, and plastic plates. First, each child must place one hand on a plate of paint. Ensure that any children who are taking part in this are using different paint colours from one another. They can then place their hands together in a high-five motion and see what colour is made when their hands meet. You can also ask questions to prompt conversation such as, “How many different colours can you make?”, “What colour have you created here with your friend?”.
- Create a Friendship Tree
While you’ve got the paints out, why not consider creating a friendship tree using colourful handprints? On a large piece of paper, paint out a basic tree trunk. You can then ask the children to print their painted hands onto the paper. Their handprints are meant to represent leaves. Once every child has printed their hand, you’ll have a colourful creation to symbolise friendship and unity.
- Make a Friendship Banner
Another crafty one to give a go! Provide each child with a piece of paper with a basic outline of a person, that should look similar to a gingerbread man. This needs to be simple as you’ll be cutting around multiple of these to create the end product. The children then need to try and paint inside the outline with any colours that they like!
Once dried, cut around each of the painting outlines before hole-punching the “hand” of each. Using paper fasteners, join each of the paintings, so you end up with a chain. You can hang this at home, if part of a playdate activity, or at nursery.
- Friendship Treats
What better way to celebrate World Friendship Day than with a tasty treat for everyone to enjoy? At home, ask your child what they think makes a good friend, using ingredients to represent the traits you come up with together. For example, maybe for ‘kindness’, you can use marshmallows, for ‘sharing’, you can use chocolate chips, and for ‘honesty’ might be biscuits. From here, add the ingredients to a bowl, alongside melted chocolate to create a Rocky Road style traybake, representing how everything must bind together, emphasising the importance of each component in creating a good friend.
There are so many ways to get involved with World Friendship Day, whether you try your hand at one of our favourites or something completely new, make sure to share with us on social media.
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