A Garden Where Friendship Can Grow
Our Noggin friends from the PAW Patrol, Blaze, Bubble Guppies and Shimmer and Shine work together to plant and grow a “friendship garden.”
Working together to create something beautiful with friends — or strangers who might become friends — can forge friendships and build community.
Create a friendship garden with your child to help him or her build connections with others.
Parent/Caregiver Tip: Fostering a sense of belonging is important for your child’s developing sense of identity and self-confidence! This helps your child understand himself or herself and relate to others.
Age Groups: Babies, Big Kids, Little Kids, Toddlers
Skills: Fine Motor, friendship, Identity, Trust
Materials
- Rocks from outside
- Paint
- Paintbrushes
Instructions
- Let’s create a friendship rock garden! First, we’ll need to find some rocks — we can go on a nature walk to collect rocks in different shapes, sizes, and colors.
- When we get home, let’s each choose a rock to paint and invite some friends to paint rocks with us!
- Let’s use our favorite colors and paint something on our rock that represents us; or, we can paint something that reminds us of people we love. Babies can put their foot or handprint on a rock. Older children (and adults!) can think more abstractly to represent themselves on a painted rock.
- Let’s find a special place (inside or outside) to arrange all of the painted rocks into a friendship rock garden!
- Bonus: Arrange your friendship rock garden in a special place outside where neighbors can enjoy it. Leave some blank rocks and a sign that invites strangers to choose a rock to paint and add to the garden. Watch your garden grow!
Vocabulary
Arrange - to put in order
Friend - a person that one likes
Community - a group of people sharing common attitudes, interests, goals, etc.
