Saffron Ice Cream
Apply in the Classroom
As Rashin discovers, making new friends adds flavor to life! Discuss how making friends can be difficult in a new school, new neighborhood, and new country. Have students brainstorm and practice ways to meet and start conversations with people new to their community.
As they practice and feel empowered to meet new people, have your class form a welcome team to greet students and families that are new to your community. Students can volunteer to give tours of the school and the neighborhood and introduce new people to different clubs, sports teams, and neighborhood activities. Everyone in the class can contribute to making a map of the neighborhood featuring places friends meet—from the park to the ice cream parlor—to hand out to new families.
Questions for Discussion or Reflective Writing
How do you feel when you are about to try something for the first time?
How would moving to a new place make you feel? What would you miss?
What are some ways to make someone new to your community feel welcome?
Why are friendships important?
What do you like about your friends that makes it fun to be together?
What are some ways to make friends?
Related Teaching Resources
Reading Is Fundamental support materials
Geographic Kids: Explore Countries of the World
Journeys to America: Sharing Stories of Survival and Hope (Rashin Kheiriyeh at minute 26:40)
Friendship on Small Talk from CBC Kids
Teaching Strategy from Teaching Tolerance: Making Connections During Read Aloud
Learning to Give: Friends lesson plan
More Titles to Try
The Seeds of Friendship by Michael Foreman
My Two Blankets by Irena Kobald
Here I Am by Patti Kim
I’m New Here by Anne Sibley O’Brien
King of the Sky by Nicola Davies
The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania of Jordan Al Abdullah with Kelly DiPucchio
Margaret and Margarita/Margarita y Margaret by Lynn Reiser
Sakura’s Cherry Blossoms by Robert Paul Weston
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