Help students in grades 4–6 examine what makes a friendship trustworthy, supportive, and respectful. This friendship lesson pairs guided classroom discussion with an interactive “Question the Suspects” activity in which students use interview clues to decide whether characters show genuine or fake-friend behaviors.

What’s included

• A lesson plan with discussion prompts, an objective, materials, and an assessment suggestion.
• An interactive presentation and a show-format version of the activity featuring two friendship cases: Mike and Joe, and Sophie, Emma, and Luke.
• A printable “Friend Report” worksheet for students to turn fake-friend behaviors into examples of what a true friend would do.

How to use it

Start with a whole-class or small-group discussion about qualities such as listening, reliability, helpfulness, trust, and respect. Then present the suspect interviews and invite students to take turns identifying clues and deciding how each character’s actions reflect friendship. The lesson plan suggests allowing about 15 minutes for the interactive activity. Finish with the worksheet as a written reflection or assessment.

Skills and learning

Students compare genuine and harmful friendship behaviors, consider how actions affect others, and explain their decisions using evidence from the scenarios. The stories also show that a person may display a mix of helpful and unhelpful behaviors, giving students an opportunity to discuss nuanced friendship choices rather than relying only on labels.

For educators

Designed for grades 4–6, this resource is a natural fit for school counseling and social-emotional learning lessons. The lesson plan lists a board, marker, and interactive activity as materials. The worksheet is printable; use the presentation on a screen and follow its click prompts during the interviews. The download also includes terms-of-use and feedback-direction documents.