Building strong friendship skills in elementary-aged students often starts with creating positive experiences during play. The “Being a Good Sport” poster from Everyday Speech offers an accessible way to target play skills, which are key building blocks for forming and maintaining friendships.

Many clinicians find that teaching concepts like being a good sport not only helps children enjoy games more, but also strengthens their ability to communicate, resolve conflicts, and cooperate with others. This article will explore strategies for teaching the elements of good sportsmanship, provide a no-prep lesson plan for the “Being a Good Sport” poster, and outline methods to support ongoing generalization beyond the activity.

What Are Play Skills?

Play skills encompass a range of social behaviors and abilities required to participate in games with peers. Some foundational aspects include:

• Taking turns and sharing materials
• Communicating needs, wants, and feelings appropriately
• Following rules and group instructions
• Displaying resilience when facing challenges or disappointment
• Demonstrating flexibility and cooperation

Within this context, being a good sport means handling both winning and losing with maturity. It involves expressing emotions appropriately, encouraging others, and keeping the experience enjoyable for everyone. This set of skills is especially relevant for elementary students as play often forms a core aspect of their social development during this stage.

Why Teach Play Skills?

Developing play skills such as being a good sport can impact students positively in various areas. Some reasons to target these skills include:

• Supports the formation and retention of friendships.
• Reduces playground and classroom conflicts by establishing fair play expectations.
• Builds resilience and coping strategies for handling frustration or loss.
• Encourages persistence, trying new strategies, and accepting mistakes.
• Fosters a classroom culture of inclusion, respect, and shared enjoyment.
• Provides opportunities for practicing positive communication during group activities.
• Helps students make connections between actions and social outcomes (for example, how boasting or sulking affects peer interactions).

Clinicians often observe that when students increase their confidence in play settings, positive changes follow in group work, turn-taking during instruction, and even in self-concept.

Lesson Plan: Using Being a Good Sport

This visual tool highlights the core elements of sportsmanship and can be adapted for individual, small group, or whole-class instruction. The following steps offer a structure for using the poster intentionally to develop play skills.

Step 1: Introduce the Concept and Vocabulary

Start by displaying the “Being a Good Sport” poster. Review each point on the poster and define the key terms. For many students, it is helpful to use role-play or real-life examples:

• “Let’s talk about what it means to be a good sport. What do you think showing respect looks like during a game? How do you show it when you lose or win?”
• Relate the points to recent events in recess or classroom games.

This step helps students link unfamiliar vocabulary (such as ‘encourage others’ or ‘accept losing’) to their lived experiences.

Step 2: Explore Why Being a Good Sport Matters

Ask students to share stories or examples (guided as needed) of when someone was a good or poor sport. Questions prompts may include:

• “How did you feel when someone cheered for you, even if they lost?”
• “What happens when someone gets upset about losing?”
• “Why is it important to follow rules, even when you want to change them to win?”

Use the bullet points from the poster to anchor the conversation. For example, connect the idea of accepting mistakes to strategies for self-calming or positive self-talk in other situations.

Step 3: Model and Practice Scenarios

Role-play a series of short games or contests with the group, such as rock-paper-scissors or a quick board game. Pause the game at key moments—after a win, a loss, a rule disagreement—and invite students to demonstrate the skills from the poster. Discussion prompts:

• “What could you say here to show you are being a good sport?”
• “How might your body language change if you’re feeling frustrated, and what can you do to calm yourself?”

Include direct modeling by adults, followed by student volunteers, then peer role-play in pairs or triads.

Step 4: Reinforce Skills Visually and Verbally

Place the “Being a Good Sport” poster in a visible location where games are often played, such as the classroom or gym. Refer back to it regularly before group activities, reminding students to choose one skill to focus on for that session (e.g., “Today, let’s focus on encouraging others, no matter who wins or loses.”). Reinforcement can also include:

• Praise for using sportsmanship skills
• Reflection time after games, asking students to name what went well
• Providing tokens, stickers, or other low-key recognition for demonstrated skills

Step 5: Personalize Goals and Monitor Progress

Invite students to set a personal goal based on the poster, such as “I will try to play by the rules even if I disagree with them” or “Today I will practice saying ‘good game’ when the game ends.” These goals can be written on a copy of the poster or on separate index cards. Checking in on progress each week or after a set number of activities helps students internalize the importance of these behaviors.

Supporting Play Skills After the Activity

For generalization, support should extend beyond the initial learning experience. Here are effective strategies:

• Display the “Being a Good Sport” poster in communal spaces as a visual cue during free play or structured activities.
• Collaborate with general education teachers to address sportsmanship as a classroom norm during lessons, transition times, and unstructured periods.
• Use visuals or hand signals to prompt and remind students silently during heated moments.
• Encourage peer feedback. For instance, ask partners or teammates to share positive observations after games.
• Integrate sportsmanship reminders into weekly team-building or circle activities.
• Schedule brief check-ins with students who benefit from additional practice. Reflect on recent challenges and reinforce how to apply skills in future situations.
• Involve families when possible by sending home a copy of the poster, paired with tips for practicing play skills during family board game night or sports.

Tailored reinforcement and consistent visual reminders make it more likely that students will carry over new sportsmanship habits across different settings.

Wrapping Up: Building Lasting Play and Friendship Skills

Focusing on play skills through the “Being a Good Sport” poster offers a practical approach to supporting relationship-building among elementary students. Sportsmanship is much more than simply following rules. It is about fostering respect, empathy, and persistence in social settings. These skills lay the groundwork for positive peer relationships, smoother classroom interactions, and healthier ways of coping with both success and disappointment. With visible reminders, explicit instruction, personalized goal-setting, and opportunities for practice, students can develop confidence and resilience that extend into all areas of their social and academic lives. The “Being a Good Sport” poster is an effective tool to anchor these conversations and to build a classroom culture where every student feels valued for their effort, attitude, and participation. Download the poster here and help your students strengthen their play and friendship skills every day.