Activity 1: The Wonder Box
Part of Wonderful Welcome
Activity time: 5 minutes
Materials for Activity
- Wonder Box (Instructions are included in Session 1)
- Large, cardboard box with fitted lid
- Decorative wrapping paper or foil
- Optional: Ribbons, stickers, glitter and other decorations
- A woven friendship bracelet
- Optional: One or more images of Coyote and his friends, cut out from Leader Resource 1 and made into masks
Preparation for Activity
- Obtain or make a friendship bracelet. If you plan to do Alternate Activity 2, Making Friendship Bracelets, you can make a prototype for the Wonder Box. Place the friendship bracelet in the Wonder Box. You may also use it for the Wonder Box poster.
- Optional: Place one or more images of the characters from the Coyote story (see Leader Resource 1), instead of a friendship bracelet, in the Wonder Box and on the Wonder Box poster.
Description of Activity
While children are still in a circle around the chalice, show them the Wonder Box. Invite them to guess what gift could be in this big, beautifully wrapped box. Take some guesses. Then pass the box around for children to open and find the friendship bracelet inside. Ask the children if any of them have ever had a bracelet like this, or made one for someone. Tell them it is called a "friendship bracelet."
Sometimes people make a bracelet like this to give a friend. When you give or get this kind of bracelet, it's not the whole gift, is it? What do you think the real gift is?
Allow guesses; affirm the answer "friendship."
That's right. Friendship is a gift we can give to people we have known a long time or people we have just met, with or without a bracelet. There are lots of things that make a person a friend. Today we are going to talk about how we appreciate our friends - the friends we already have, and new friends we will meet.