Teaching kids how to show Empathy

When you show empathy you are understanding and compassionate towards other people’s feelings. You are able to place yourself in their shoes and understand how something makes them feel. A good way of explaining this to your students is by asking them how something would make them feel. For example, if you ask your students how they would feel if someone pushed them off the swing, they may say upset, sad, hurt or even angry. Then ask them how they think it would make someone else feel if they were pushed off the swing. If they say upset, sad, hurt or even angry, then that’s empathy. They understand how something would make others feel because they would feel the same way.

Here is a quick, easy and interactive way to teach Empathy to your students.

Have you heard of problems or scenarios around the room? It’s when you place problems around the room on chart paper or poster paper, divide your class into groups of 4 or 5, and let them work together to solve the problems you placed around the room. This is a fun and interactive way to teach the character trait Empathy through movement.

Here are a couple of scenarios you can place around the room to help you teach your students all about Empathy:

1. Ms. Jones’ 4th grade class was coming in from recess. They lined up in front of the water fountain to get water. Everyone in her class waited patiently for a turn to drink water. All of a sudden, Ms. Miller’s class came from outside and skipped Ms. Jones’ class. How do you think the students in Ms. Jones’ class felt when Ms. Miller’s class skipped them at the water fountain? How would you feel if this happened to you?
2. Erin was new to third grade and new to her school. When her teacher, Ms. Thomas introduced her to the class, two girls started laughing and pointing at her. Erin immediately began to look down and place her hand in her pockets. How do you think Erin felt? How would you feel if this were you?
3. Tiffany made a video on social media that showed her dancing and singing. The next day, she goes to school and noticed her classmates laughing and picking at her. They teased her and said she could not sing or dance. How do you think this made Tiffany feel? How would this make you feel?
4. Anthony was walking down the hallway in school when his shoelace came loose. He stepped on it, tripped and fell. His books fell out of his bookbag and his lunch fell on the floor. How do you think this made Anthony feel? How would you feel if this happened to you?
5. Ms. Brothers is a 5th grade elementary school teacher. She asked one of her students to sit at their seat because they were walking around the room talking to their friends. The student yelled at Ms. Brothers in front of the entire class and said “I am not going to sit down, I don’t want to.” How do you think this made Ms. Brothers feel? How would this make you feel?

Once all of the groups had a chance to work together on all of the problems around the room, come back together as a whole group to discuss each problem. To do this, read the problem aloud or have a student read the problem and let each group share their thoughts.

Not only will this lesson help your students learn a lot about Empathy, but it will help you learn a lot about your students!

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