Empathy Lesson: The Invisible Boy

This was a great book to help the students understand Empathy, and I highly recommend it among many other topics that it can go along with.

I begin by explaining and having a discussions of what Empathy is (standing is someone else's shoes, try to understand how they feel).  Can we ever feel exactly what someone else feels?  Why/Why not?  (we aren't them)

Lesson Questions:

Pg. 5:  What does Brian want?  (to make friends, to get picked).
Pg. 7:  How do you think Brian feels? (sad, lonely, ignored)
Pg. 9:  What is the difference in this picture? (Brian is gray and kids are in color)
Why do you think he is drawn like that?
Pg. 11:  Take a look at the picture where Brian has drawn the superhero.  (Ask again)  What is it that Brian wants?
Pg. 13:  How would you feel if you were the new student and others were trying to decide if you were cool or not?  Is that very nice?  What do you think Brian is thinking?
Pg. 15:  AHHH, could Brian have empathy for Justin?  How?
Pg. 18:  What do you notice that is happening to Brian in this picture?  (getting color)
If he is getting color instead of gray, how do you think he feels?  Why?
Pg. 20:  Uh-Oh, how does Brian feel now?
Pg. 24-25:  What do you think Brian is feeling now that he has worked with his two friends?
Pg. 26:  How does Brian look like he feels?

Watch for student reactions while reading the story and catch them feeling empathy for the characters.  Challenge the students to notice when they feel empathy for another person.

**I have found that this lesson takes a good 20-25 minutes if you are discussing what is happening in the story as you read.  It generates great questions and responses from the students.

Empathy Lesson

This has to be the most influential, positive discussion, student engaging movie clip I have found that has to do with empathy and several other topics (friendship, kindness, accepting others, and etc.).

I start out by discussing with the class what empathy is (standing in someone else's shoes, trying to understand another's feelings).  I also ask the class "Can we ever really understand what another person is going through? Why or why not?"

Then, I ask the class if anyone speaks Spanish and if any of those students started school not understanding any English.  I tell the class that this is their chance to understand what it may have been like for those students who don't understand English, because the entire video is in Spanish.

I tell the class to be watching for things that are happening, emotions, actions, and etc. because it can tell us a lot, even though we cannot understand what is being said.





I pause the movie right when Maria finds out about the boy being sick so that the students can observe the sorrow.

Questions to ask the class:
How did Maria have empathy for the boy?
Are there other people that showed empathy towards the boy?  Maria?

I turn to the paused movie and ask the class:
What is Maria feeling?
In what ways might we not be able to understand how she feels?
How can we have empathy for Maria right now?

After discussing the movie, I turn to the students who don't speak Spanish and ask them how they felt if they weren't able to understand what was being said.  Most answers are; confused, frustrated, weird, and etc.  I then ask, do you have some empathy now for our students that come to our school who do not speak English.

This lesson is interesting to watch the kids' reactions and can be very engaging for them to really understand what it means to have empathy.

Friendship

This week, we are talking about friendship.  For the 1st & 2nd graders, I am using the book called Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley, by Aaron Blabey.  I really like this story because it is quick, simple, and straight to the point.  You can also use it for differences, accepting others, and helping out.  So with this lesson, I really wanted to help the students understand the importance of being there for their friend(s), through thick and thin, and that friendship can't work without being nice, caring, showing support, etc. 

Friendship Lesson (1st & 2nd grade):

I started out by asking the class who likes to have friends?  (duh, everyone raised their hands).  Then I asked the class why its important to have friends. 

I then read the story Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley.  After reading the story, I asked the class to idenitify what things helped Pearl and Charlie be such good friends.

Last, I asked the class how an ice cream cone would taste without the ice cream.  I used the annalogy that an ice cream cone doesn't taste the same as if there were ice cream piled on top.  Friendship doesn't work unless there is good stuff (ice cream scoops) too!  I found a graphic organzier to help the students with this writing assignment (here), using an ice cream cone.  I had the class draw an ice cream cone with scoops on top. 

Then I had them write FRIENDSHIP on the cone and then write one friendship characteristic on each scoop of ice cream.  When they finished that, I had them write a story about their friend and how each one of the characteristics help them be friends.

At the end, I picked a couple of people to share their stories.

Valentines Day

I just thought I would share how cute my kids are!  There is a tradition in my school that each class will "heart attack" another class.  So on the big heart they write their names along with a Valentine Message and then decorate with other hearts too.  Well, one of my Kindergarten classes attacked my door!  I just thought they were cute and how much it meant to me to be remembered, even though I am not a "classroom!"

The Band-Aid Chicken

Can I just say, I LOVE THIS BOOK! I found it to be very accepted from Kindergarten up to 6th grade.

This book covers a lot of topics; accepting others, bullying, courage, bravery, standing up to others, peer pressure, and self-esteem. I am sure there are many other topics that you could pull out of this story as well.

I used this book with my students as sort of a review from the lessons I had taught over the year. Mainly, I used it to address bullying. Last year, I taught my students Bully Prevention In Positive Behavior Support (found here). With this program, students were supposed to use a "stop" signal with their hand as they are saying "stop." I started getting feedback from students about this program and that it wasn't working. Come to find out, students weren't taking it seriously and it was becoming a joke. Students would be using the hand signal inappropriately, which caused more problems.

After every page I read, I would stop and ask the class which lesson it related to. This was a great way to "test" them to see how much they remembered. I emphasized the parts where it related to the bully lesson I taught before. The Band-aid Chicken told them to "STOP" and the other chickens took her seriously and they STOPPED.

After discussing the story and pointing out a few things worth mentioning, I had the students draw the Band-aid Chicken and provided a band-aid for them to put it on their drawing (grades 1-3).

I was able to get this lesson idea from Debra Wosnik.

Valentines Lesson: Avoiding Hurtful Words

This lesson turned out really well and the kids get it!

Object lesson:
First, I start out by cutting out a heart while discussing with them the difference between hurtful words and nice words. I then hold up the heart and ask them if this looks like a healthy heart. Then I ask them to think of words that may hurt a heart. With each suggestion, I make a fold in the heart until I can't fold it anymore.
Then I ask the students: Does this look like a healthy heart now? What has damaged it? Would you like to make someone's heart feel like this heart looks?
Then I ask them what things could we do to mend the heart? As the students are making suggestions (apologize, ask someone to be their friend, and etc.) I unfold each fold with every suggestion. When the heart is all unfolded again, I ask them if the heart is back to normal? They say no. I ask what is different? Then I proceed to explain to them that we can't unsay words or take words back and with every hurtful thing we say or do to someone else, there will be a scar that is left. The only way to not leave scars is to not say hurtful things.

Literature:
Then I read the book,

I challenge the students to look for hurtful things that might damage a heart.

Activity:
I give every student a half sheet of red paper. They cut and crumple their own heart, paste it into their Counseling Journal. Title their page Avoiding Hurtful Words and then write "Don't wrinkle somebody's heart!"

Before I leave the classroom, I tell the students I will leave the wrinkled heart in their classroom to remind them to not say hurtful things. Most teachers will use a magnet and leave it on their whiteboard.

Friendship Group: Relational Aggression

I have a group of 2nd grade girls that are the best of friends, but hate each other! The dynamics that make up this group are really interesting. There are a couple of girls that are very submissive, quiet, and want to make peace, but on the flip side, they tend to retaliate in a very negative way! Other girls in the group are very bossy, seem to be the leader(s) of the group at different times of the day, but then get hurt easily. It is a very unique situation! I have relied on the "I Hate Wendy Club" by Debra Wosnik. Debra is a very dear friend and coworker of mine who has helped me immensely. Thanks Deb!
I Hate Wendy Club focuses specifically on relational aggression and the exclusions of people. There are great resources, activities, lessons, and a personal story written by the author. It is a wonderful way to help girls of all ages sort through problems within groups. I would recommend this book in a heartbeat!