Looking for an engaging way to help students understand what makes a good friend and how to build healthy relationships? Our Helpful vs Unhelpful Friendship Qualities Task Cards are the perfect tool to support social-emotional learning (SEL), school counseling activities, and social skills development in the classroom or counseling setting.

This resource helps students reflect on the characteristics of both positive and negative friendships, encouraging them to think critically about the kind of friend they want to be — and the kind of friends they want to have.

What’s Included in our Friendship SEL Resource:

Task Cards Featuring Key Friendship Qualities:
- Examples of both helpful (kind, honest, supportive) and unhelpful (mean, controlling, selfish) behaviors.
- Encourages discussion, sorting, and reflection on real-life friendship dynamics.
Supports Essential SEL Skills: Self-awareness and personal reflection, Relationship-building and communication, Recognizing positive and toxic behavior patterns in friendships
Ideal for Use In: School counseling activities, SEL small groups and social skills programs, Classroom morning meetings or health lessons, Behavior support and character education lessons
Flexible Implementation: Use in individual sessions, peer discussions, or small groups, Great for sorting activities, discussion prompts, and reflective journaling, Printable and easy to laminate for long-term use

This Helpful vs Unhelpful Friendship Qualities Task Card set is a powerful resource for helping students build emotional intelligence, identify healthy relationship patterns, and learn the building blocks of strong, respectful friendships. A perfect tool for counselors, teachers, SEL specialists, and behavior support staff working with students in elementary and early middle school.