This inspirational lesson on friendship could take as little as 15 minutes of class time. It would be appropriate for middle and high school students, though you would need to preview the clips beforehand, since the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is all PG-13. {The second clip does have a dark creature in it that might be a bit intense for some of your younger students.}
Lesson on Friendship Using The Lord of the Rings movies: Simply show each of the following three clips to your students. As they watch the clips, ask them to be thinking about the qualities of a good friend.
Clip Where Frodo Leaves for Mordor {For some reason, I couldn’t get this one to embed.}
After watching the clips, lead a class discussion about what qualities make a good friend. You can use the following questions, or create some of your own. You may also want to use this activity as a writing prompt on friendship.
What qualities did Sam have? What made him a good friend to Frodo? {List them on the board.}
What are the other qualities you look for in a friend? Which qualities are the most important and why?
What would have happened to Frodo had Sam not been a good friend? Could Frodo have defeated the Ring on his own?
Do you have friends who are to you like Sam was to Frodo? Are you a Sam to someone else?
Additional Activity. Have students make a list of the five qualities of a friend they value as most important. After they have their list of five qualities, ask them to give themselves a rating on those same five qualities {1-10}. Remind them that to have a good friend, it’s important that they be one, first.
- Laura taught in middle schools and now blogs from overseas at aLifeOverseas.
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