Friendship Day (also known as the International Day of Friendship) is celebrated at the end of July, and for many classrooms across the US, that timing couldn’t be better. As some students head back to school and others prepare to return soon, the back‑to‑school season is the perfect time to focus on building classroom community and strengthening friendships. Whether you’re helping students form positive relationships on the playground or supporting social‑emotional learning in the classroom, Friendship Day offers meaningful and engaging teaching opportunities to start the year on a positive note.
To help you celebrate, the Teach Starter teaching squad has curated a collection of fun, classroom ideas designed to make Friendship Day meaningful for your students. Keep reading for activity ideas you can use right away, along with background information about the International Day of Friendship to share with your class.
What Is Friendship Day?
Run by the United Nations, International Day of Friendship recognizes and celebrates the power of friendship to promote peace, kindness, and understanding across communities worldwide. The day encourages schools, organizations, and communities to engage in activities that foster dialogue, empathy, and mutual respect among people of different backgrounds and cultures.
In the classroom, Friendship Day provides a meaningful opportunity for students to learn about the value of friendship, cooperation, and inclusion—skills that are especially important as they settle into a new school year.
When Is Friendship Day 2026?
Friendship Day is a relatively new global observance, officially established by the United Nations in 2011. It is celebrated annually at the end of July to highlight the importance of connection and community around the world.
In 2026, International Day of Friendship falls on Thursday, July 30. While some students may not have returned to school just yet, for those who have, what better way to kick off the year than by celebrating a day centered on kindness, connection, and community? Friendship Day activities can easily be incorporated into lessons during the week before or after, making them a meaningful way to start building positive classroom relationships.
Friendship Day Activities to Inspire Kids
Are you looking for fun activities to inspire your students to be good friends? Let’s explore some of our favorites, perfect for the day or simply adding to an SEL lesson.
Get Crafty by Making Friendship Bracelets
Thanks to Taylor Swift and The Eras Tour, you’ve seen how friendship bracelets can bring people together and create meaningful connections! So why not bring that magic into the classroom?
Friendship bracelets have been around for years and are a fun, hands‑on way for students to celebrate friendship with one another. Using simple craft materials found in most classrooms (such as beads, ribbon, or colorful string), students can create their own bracelets and then exchange them with classmates. These bracelets serve as a symbol of friendship and a special keepsake students can carry with them throughout the school year.
Celebrate both friendship and diversity by using our printable friendship bracelets. Students choose a design to color, then trade bracelets with classmates, honoring what makes each person unique while building meaningful connections.
Create a Kindness Chain to Hang in the Classroom
A wonderful way to get students involved in Friendship Day is by creating a compliment chain to uplift their peers. To get started, cut strips of colored paper and give each student one strip to write something positive about a classmate.
Once finished, have the class link the paper strips together to form a chain you can hang in the classroom as a meaningful reminder of kindness and friendship.
Or, you may choose to create a compliment wall instead. Have each student place a piece of paper on their desk and write their name across the top. Students then move around the classroom SCOOT!‑style, leaving a compliment on each classmate’s paper. When they return to their seats, they’ll discover an entire wall of compliments, sure to inspire smiles during those days when they may be missing their friends from school.
Make a Collaborative Piece of Artwork With Your Class
Celebrate Friendship Day by getting out the paints and paintbrushes for an afternoon of collaborative fun. This is a great opportunity to bring students together to create a shared artwork that represents their friendships as a class while practicing cooperation and teamwork skills.
One option is to create a collaborative handprint painting, with each student using a different color of paint to make their mark on the artwork.
You could also create a black‑and‑white outline of a class photo or a word bubble filled with students’ names, then transfer it onto a large piece of heavy‑duty paper or canvas. Divide the artwork into equal rectangles and assign one to each student. Students can then color their section using art materials of their choice. Once complete, the individual pieces can be reassembled to form a unique, pixel‑style artwork to display in the classroom.
After the activity, guide a class discussion about how each student contributed to the project and highlight how working together can create something bigger and better than working alone.
Teach Your Students About Friendship With a Writing Prompt
As part of your Friendship Day lesson plans, invite students to reflect on what friendship means to them. Our Friendship Writing Prompts are a great resource for helping students think about and build positive relationships with their peers. The set includes two versions: one with primary writing lines and one with intermediate writing lines, so you can easily differentiate for your students’ needs.
The prompts include:
- I am a good friend when …
- Three ways I can be a good friend …
- I show I care when …
- These are my friends … We like to …
Have students read each prompt and write their own responses, along with drawings to support their reflections. Once finished, encourage students to share their work with the class and learn from one another.
Read Books About Friendship
Exploring friendship and friendship traits through the pages of a popular storybook is a meaningful activity for Friendship Day (or any time of year)! You may want to bookmark this list of engaging friendship‑themed books for elementary teachers to use when building classroom community and discussing positive relationships.
Kindergarten
- The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
- You Are My Friend: The Story of Mister Rogers and His Neighborhood by Aimee Reid
- Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems
- Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud
- Llama Llama Time to Share by Anna Dewdney
1st & 2nd Grade
- How to Be a Friend: A Guide to Making Friends and Keeping Them by Laurie Krasny Brown and Marc Brown
- The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney
- Enemy Pie by Derek Munson
- The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig
- My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann
3rd & 4th Grade
- Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
- Wonder by R.J. Palacio
- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
- Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
- Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson
5th & 6th Grade
- Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
- Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullay Hunt
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
- Holes by Louis Sachar
- Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
- Restart by Gordon Korman
Make a Printable Friendship Book
To build lasting friendships, kids need to learn how to be supportive friends and recognize positive traits in others. Social stories can help with this!
The How to Be a Good Friend Mini Book is an excellent social story designed to help kids learn skills such as taking turns, sharing with others, and being honest through reading and simple activities.
As part of your social-emotional learning discussions, this mini‑book can be used with small groups or the whole class to guide conversations about the importance of positive friendships.
Create a Friendship Tree for the Classroom
To celebrate the event, why not build a friendship tree with your class to display in the classroom? You can make handprint templates to represent leaves, which students can decorate using craft materials and write their names on. As you build the tree together, explain how “branching out” to form friendships is something students can do both inside and outside the classroom, with each leaf symbolizing their unity as a class.
Teach your students about different social cues with this printable poster and worksheet.
Engage Your Class With the Wrinkled Heart Activity
The Wrinkled Heart activity is a popular activity in elementary school classrooms to show the negative social, emotional and health impacts of bullying on kids.
After completing the activity with your class, the wrinkled hearts can be turned into a bulletin board and placed around empowering Friendship Day quotes and reminders.
Inspire Kids With Friendship Day Quotes
Keep the power of friendship top of mind by displaying inspiring Friendship Day quotes around the classroom. Quotes are a powerful teaching tool and offer simple, meaningful reminders of the importance of friendship (and there are plenty of ways to use them with students)!
One idea is to have students create a magazine‑style cut‑and‑paste poster by cutting out letters from old books, magazines, or newspapers to spell out their favorite friendship quote. This hands‑on activity helps students practice spelling, word building, and fine motor skills.
Another easy option is to write a different friendship quote on the whiteboard each morning as a visual reminder throughout the school day. We’ve included 10 of our favorite Friendship Day quotes to help you get started!
Grades K-2
- Things are never quite scary when you’ve got a best friend. — Bill Watterson
- A friend in need is a friend indeed. — Proverb
- Good friends share and care. — Anonymous
Grades 3-4
- A good friend is like a four-leaf clover: hard to find and lucky to have. — Proverb
- My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me. — Henry Ford
- We didn’t realize we were making memories; we just knew we were having fun. — A.A. Milne
Grades 5-6
- Friendship improves happiness and reduces misery by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief. — Marcus Tullius Cicero
- True friends support you and help you grow. — Anonymous
- Great friendships are built on kindness, trust, and respect. — Anonymous
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