Friendship: It's Not Always Easy

It takes a firm apple to stand up to his "friends". 

When Mac, an apple, meets Will, a worm, they become fast friends, teaching each other games and even finishing each other's sentences. But apples aren't supposed to like worms, and Mac gets called "rotten" and "bad apple." At first, Mac doesn't know what to do--it's never easy standing up to bullies--but after a lonely day without Will, Mac decides he'd rather be a bad apple with Will than a sad apple without him.

Being friends with someone in the face of peer pressure isn't easy, but Mac realized that a true friendship means acceptance and appreciation.   We then had an interesting discussion.  There were six teasing apples teasing Will and Mac.  Which number is bigger, 6 or 2?  Six is bigger!  Could you leave 6 friends tom play with just one friend?

Matthew:  Maybe, but we would have to play something really fun.  With six friends I could play family and that's fun.  I can't play that with just one friend.

Nico: I like to play with just one friend anyways or sometimes two.

Eva:  I would like to play with Zoe

Zoe:  I would play with Eva and 3 other friends only - that's enough.

The children interpreted the stories in their pictures:

Nico: Mac and Will are happy when playing tag together, and sad when being teased

Eva: the worm and apple got sad because they have nothing to play with.

Zoe: Mac and Eva are sad together because they got lost together

Matthew: Slug is not very fast.  Apple always wins and says 'sorry about that.'

Allye: The bad apples are loud and teasing the good apple and worm.

Allye:  The mac apple and worm are smaller than the bad apples but it's okay because they really like each other.