Activity: Friendly Manners

Help your child build important social skills by recording and reinforcing good manners on a daily basis in a fun way.

Materials:

• Clifford printable(s) (available on this Web site)
• stars, stickers

Directions:
Print out a Clifford coloring page or printable available on this Web site. Record and reinforce your child's effort to be courteous, polite, or mannerly each day by sticking a star or sticker on this special picture. Set a goal for a simple reward like time with a friend or a special parent-child activity and begin building good social habits that will last a lifetime!

Talk about It: Ask your child to name behaviors that are polite like opening a door for someone, using manners on the phone, or saying "thank you" whenever someone else is helpful or courteous. Then talk about ways that friends can be polite or courteous to each other when they play at school, daycare, or at home.

Take it Further: Take a look at these fun books that will help reinforce good manners at the table and beyond:

• You've Got Manners! Table Tips from A to Z for Kids of All Ages
  by Louise Elerding (Grandy Publications)
• 365 Manners Kids Should Know: Games, Activities, and Other Fun Ways to Help Children Learn Etiquette (Crown Publishing) Sheryl Eberlyby

After reading and talking about why it's important to have good manners, set a simple table with paper plates, napkins, and plastic serving utensils to practice good manners and create good habits at the table.

With a Group: Have children role-play (act out) examples of friends being courteous and polite by taking turns, saying thank you, sharing, and helping each other. Explain that friends have more fun when friends are courteous, polite, and use manners. Then have children repeat the following Manners Pledge as a group, or individually, for a fun reward: I am a good friend and good friends use their manners!