Friendship Activity
 

You'll need a ball of string or yarn for each group of 6 to 8 participants and three balloons for each group.  Divide into groups of six to eight participants. Have them stand in a circle facing the middle. Distribute one ball of yarn or string and three balloons to each group. Have them blow up and tie the balloons and set them on the ground until later. Share the following directions:  We are going to make friendship webs. Start with one person holding the end of the string and tossing the string ball to another person in the circle. As the ball is tossed, the person tossing says one quality of a good friend. The person who caught the “ball” will hold the end of the string and toss it to a different person while saying another quality of a good friend. Keep holding on to the string so a large web is created. Once each person has the string, send the “ball” back to the first person and stop. After this first round, toss the balloons into the circle and keep them from touching the ground using the string web. Tell participants to think of the balloons as special friends and they need to support these friends. At this point, the web has large holes and the balloons will fall through to the ground. Instruct groups to do a second and third round of sharing and tossing the string, each time in a different order. Again toss the balloons into the circle and keep them from touching the ground using the  string web. This time it is much easier as there are more strands to the web. Ask participants to share within their group what they think this activity was trying to show. Then make Friendship Mix.  Each girl can bring their own ingredient, or you can have various cereals, granola, crackers, cheerios, bugles, snack mixes, chocolate chips, raisins, Reese's pieces, peanuts, M&M's. etc. Each girl puts in one cup of ingredient. everything is mixed together in a big bowl and then each girl gets one cup back for her snack. The idea is that we all get back what we put into our friendships, but with more flavor (variety). (OTHER IDEAS:  You could also make friendship bracelets, Friendship Matching Game)