I witnessed first hand through the pandemic that children were not being allowed to have the social interactions they need to develop social skills and begin to form friendships with others. I decided that I needed to take action to create a learning tool  that would allow young learners to engage with others, learn more about their classmates, and develop some basic social skills as well. Thus the Let’s Be Friends Game was born!

Let’s Be Friends’ purpose is to encourage building social interactions and helping children make friends.  The game would be suitable for players who are in kindergarten through third grade; in a group of two to six players ideally. There are three sets of playing cards to allow for varying reading levels and abilities when playing in groups. One set has the word the question is focused on. The second set is slightly more advanced with the image and the question. The third set of cards has only the question in text, which allows the teacher to scaffold for varying learning levels.

The purpose of Let’s Be Friends is to create opportunities for the players to learn basic social skills that are helpful in the classroom and more specifically creating friendships. Students will also learn the important prosocial behaviors of taking turns, engaged listening, sharing, and taking interest in others through questions. These skills are instrumental in helping children develop friendships.