Empathy Lesson Plan: Social and Emotional Learning
*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Empathy Lesson Plan.
This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP Jr. topic Empathy, and supports students in understanding their emotions and those of others. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.
Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Prompt students to think of a time when a friend or family member was upset. Ask:
- How did you feel when you saw they were upset?
- What did you do to help them?
Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE
- Play the Empathy movie.
- Click the pause button each time a question appears in Annie’s Notebook and discuss it as a class. Then play to see how Annie answers it.
TIP: The pause button turns red to remind you to pause.
Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS
Students take the Easy Quiz or Hard Quiz, demonstrating what they learned about the topic while applying essential literacy skills.
Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND
Students express what they learned about empathy while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student or grade-level needs.
- Draw About It: Draw something to make someone feel joyful.
- Activity: Practice mindfulness by focusing on your breathing and sending kind thoughts to someone who needs help.
- Talk About It: Describe ways to help someone who is feeling hurt, angry, sad, scared, sick, and embarrassed.
- Write About It: Write about a time you helped someone who was feeling sad or angry.
More to Explore
Feelings and SEL Unit: Continue to build understanding around social and emotional learning by exploring more BrainPOP Jr. topics.
Teacher Support Resources:
