Intermediate and above

Activity Goals:

• Practice listening for main ideas and details in a song about friendship and mutual respect
• Using song lyrics and examples from their own lives, analyze why friendship is important and what qualities make a strong friendship
• Create similes about friendship

1. Download the song and have it ready to play on the audio device.
2. Make copies or printouts of the two worksheets, preferably one per student.  If this is not possible, students working in groups can share a handout and write down answers individually, or the teacher can present worksheet content on the board for students to copy on blank paper.   

1. Create groups of 3-5 students. Tell students they are going to listen to a song.  Ask students to think about the song’s message and main ideas as they listen:  Is the singer’s message positive or negative?  What does they singer want the audience to learn from the song? 
2. Play the song.  Ask groups to discuss the message and main idea. Have a couple of groups share their ideas with the whole class. (message: positive; main idea: treating each other with respect and kindness is important in this world)
3. Have a student volunteer or volunteers pass out the listening cloze worksheets. Tell students they will listen to the song again and fill in the missing words as they hear them.
4. Play the song again; have students compare their cloze answers with their group mates.
5. Review the answers with the whole class: read they lyrics aloud and pause to let the class provide the missing information chorally (out loud, at the same time).  Briefly explain or elicit meanings for any new vocabulary items (e.g., bloom, make a difference), if needed.  
6. Ask the class to guess the song’s title based on the lyrics.  Confirm or provide the correct answer: “Lessons in Life.”  Tell students to write the title at the top of the cloze worksheet.
7. Ask the groups to examine the lyrics and identify the some of the lessons described in the song.  Tell them the to provide the line number from the song that relates to their answer (e.g., people should respect each other, Line 8).  After they have time to discuss, ask a few groups to share their ideas with the class.
8. Tell students that “friendship” and “taking care of friendships” are important themes (ideas) in the song.  Ask students to share “lessons in life” they have learned about what makes a good friendship.  Brainstorm with the whole class and write students’ ideas on the board or on a large piece of paper. (examples: making each other laugh, honesty, sharing similar interests, being a good listener). 
9. Ask students to look at the first two lines of the song: Having a friend is like planting a flower / Show love and kindness, it one day will bloom.  Tell groups to discuss the lyrics’ meaning: How is having a friend like planting a flower that blooms?  After they have time to discuss, ask a couple of groups to share their ideas with the class.
10. Explain that the comparison in the first two lines is called a simile.  Similes compare two items or ideas using like or as.  While you explain, have a student volunteer or volunteers pass out the Friendship Simile Starters worksheets.       
11. Show students the simile starters at the top of the worksheet, and discuss the example similes shown in the middle of the page.  Explain that one strategy for making a simile is to think of something you want to compare to the target idea or thing – in this case, friendship – and then list reasons why you made the comparison.  (Note: Listing reasons why they made the comparison can help students create more complex or extended similes, such as the one presented at the beginning of “Lessons in Life.”) 
12.  Ask students to use the simile starters and the comparison chart to make at least two similes about friendship.  Students should work individually, but can ask their group mates for support.  When everyone has completed at least one simile, ask students to share and discuss their creations with their group mates.  If desired, groups can choose one or two of their favorite similes to share with the whole class.
     

• Extension ideas:  Students can turn their Simile Starter worksheets over, write one of their similes at the top of the page and then illustrate the ideas with a drawing.  As another alternative, group mates could work together to arrange several similes into a non-rhyming poem.  These creative works can be posted around the classroom for all to see and discuss.
• If your students require additional support to complete the listening cloze, you can provide a “word bank” on the board before the activity.  The word bank should contain the song’s missing words as well as a few extra “distraction” words that aren’t in the song.  Be sure to tell the students that they won’t use every item in the word bank.
• If students have difficulty working individually in step 12, have them work as a team in their group to develop the similes.

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