In February, because of Valentine’s Day, we tend to think a lot about the people we love. This means that it is a great time for children to take time to appreciate their friends and reflect on what it means to be a good friend. To help with this, we’ve come up with a craft that allows children to think about the different traits they believe make up a good friend.

What You Need

• ‘A Good Friend Is…’ cover, heart template, and step-by-step instructions (download here)
• Construction paper
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Markers or crayons
• Glue stick

Prepare

• Print the ‘A Good Friend Is…’ cover and heart template on cardstock paper.
• Cut out a heart template. 

Instructions

• Color the cover and fold it in half so that “A Good Friend Is” is on the front.
• Using the heart template, trace four hearts on the construction paper.
• Cut out the hearts.
• Fold each of the hearts in half.
• Glue the hearts together by adding glue to one of the folded halves and attaching it to a half of another heart. Repeat this until all the hearts are glued together, creating a 3D heart.
• Open the cover and glue the outside halves of the 3D heart along the center fold. 
• Starting with the first heart, open the heart up and write your first ‘A Good Friend Is’ trait. Repeat until each heart has a word written on it. 

For this activity, it is important to help children think about traits beyond simply good, kind, and nice. To help with this, we’ve included a list of traits below to help get them started.