Social Awareness
Family Resources on
Empathy
Project and Purpose
By explicitly teaching social-emotional learning skills while honoring diverse identities, creating a sense of belonging, and promoting student agency toward personal growth and social impact, the teacher better creates a classroom environment that fosters well-being for self and others.
If the lesson is used in the classroom: The goal of this lesson was for students to define empathy, talk about examples of being empathetic and play a game using examples of empathy.
In class students discussed situations where they discussed examples of empathy and played a game of “Simon Says…” using facial expressions of different emotions to help practice being empathic with others.
Getting Ready for the Conversation
Being empathetic is essential to relating and building relationships with others. This lesson helps students discuss and practice being empathetic with one another.
Conversation Starters and Practice at Home Activities
Ask your child to tell you what empathy means and talk about the examples that were discussed in class.
Ask your child for some examples of being empathetic toward others at home or in the community.
Discuss the following questions:
- How does it feel when others treat you with empathy? What are some examples of being empathetic?
- How can we as a family show empathy towards others (like our neighbors)?
- How do we do as a family about being empathetic towards each other? Why is it important for us to be empathetic?
School to Home Resources on Empathy
In this lesson students will explore the idea of Empathy. Students will play a game using clues to identify the feelings of others. Then students will think of scenarios where empathy might help guide their actions to be compassionate.
Format
This 25–35 minute lesson is designed for flexibility. It can be taught in one day or over the course of a week.
- Warm Welcome
- Feelings Check-in
- SEL Skill Spotlight
- Active Engagement
- Closing Connection
