TeachersFirst Resources Related to Empathy
Empathy is our desire and ability to understand and share another person’s feelings and use that information to guide our actions. It’s the foundation of respect and inclusivity and is an essential component of relationship building, resolving interpersonal conflicts, and understanding cause and effect. In this collection, we share resources that will help you create lessons and experiences that cultivate empathy in your students and informational websites about this important topic.
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The Emotion Motion Podcast - Move This World
Grades
K to 3tag(s): emotions (55), empathy (42), podcasts (150), preK (301)
In the Classroom
Students can use Seesaw, reviewed here to create an emotions book. Have students create and play emotion headbands using Canva for Education, reviewed here to create images.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Second Step - Second Step
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): empathy (42), listening (97), problem solving (265), social and emotional learning (144), thinking skills (84)
In the Classroom
Students can create their own Caption Compassion comics using ToonyTool, reviewed here. Students can create digital escape rooms using Online Escape Room Templates, reviewed here to teach about social emotional learning. Students can create their own "How-to Guide" for social emotional learning using Storyboard That, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Listening with Understanding and Empathy (Habit of the Mind) - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Share these resources with your students to learn more about listening with understanding and empathy. Share a link to this collection on your school web page and in your school newsletter (or email). Find resources to incorporate into your lessons.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Expressing Emotions Through Art - Getty Museum
Grades
K to 3tag(s): art history (103), emotions (55), social and emotional learning (144)
In the Classroom
Students can keep a weekly art reflection journal. After each lesson, they can write or draw how the activity made them feel, connect it to their experiences, or explore how they would change a famous artwork to express a different emotion. Challenge your students to do the journal online using a tool such as ePubEditor, reviewed here or WriteReader reviewed here. Collaboratively create a large mural that represents a range of emotions. Assign small groups of students an emotion to illustrate, using the concepts learned from the curriculum. Have students paint abstract art pieces using colors that represent specific emotions. They can present their work, explaining their choices of color and form. Provide students with a selection of famous artworks from the curriculum. Ask them to identify the emotions expressed in each piece and discuss their observations as a class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Nora Project Resources for Educators - The Nora Project
Grades
K to 12tag(s): aspergers (6), autism (15), charactered (77), disabilities (37), diversity (53), empathy (42), social and emotional learning (144), Special Needs (45)
In the Classroom
Bookmark The Nora Project to include resources for teaching and learning about disabilities and inclusion in your teacher toolbox. Consider curating your resources using Wakelet, reviewed here, into one easy to find collection. Add your peers as collaborators to your Wakelet collection as you continue to find and build additional resources. Ask older students to create infographics and posters to teach others about inclusiveness using Genially, reviewed here. Add links, images, and videos within your Genially projects to create interactive content. Use WriteReader, reviewed here, with younger students to create and share interactive books telling the story of inclusiveness. WriteReader is an excellent tool for creating books with emerging writers as it offers the option to show student writing along with the correct spelling underneath.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Social and Emotional Learning Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): emotions (55), empathy (42), social and emotional learning (144)
In the Classroom
Find resources to educate yourself and your students about various topics related to social-emotional learning. This collection includes lesson plans, digital check-ins, toolkits, professional resources, and more. Share this curated list with your colleagues and families.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Whiteness Project: Millenials in Dallas, Texas - Whitney Dow
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): charactered (77), civil rights (219), cross cultural understanding (177), cultures (270), difficult conversations (53), empathy (42), racism (80)
In the Classroom
The Whiteness Project provides a unique and interesting resource for introducing and discussing difficult topics in the classroom, including racism, prejudice, bias, and empathy. Share this site with students and provide them time to listen to some of the conversations and the provided statistics. Encourage students to choose one statistic as a starting point for additional research. For example, one piece of data shared is the number of adults who have two or more races in their background. This provides a starting point for researching race in your community, state, or in the country. As students complete research, ask them to share their findings in a multimedia presentation using a tool like Sway, reviewed here, to add graphs, charts, images, and video that support their findings.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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What is Empathy? - Learning for Justice (Tolerance.org)
Grades
2 to 6tag(s): bullying (40), charactered (77), empathy (42)
In the Classroom
Include this lesson and others found at Tolerance.org as part of your teaching the character trait of empathy. Engage students as you gather responses to questions using Microsoft Whiteboard, reviewed here. Post a question onto your Jamboard, then share the link with students and ask them to add sticky notes onto the board with their response. Have students return to the Jamboard throughout your activities to modify or add additional responses. Use the extension activities to encourage students to produce and create scenarios that teach younger students about empathy. Have students use the tools found at Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education reviewed here, to create multimedia presentations, flyers, and engaging web pages to share.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Developing Empathy - Learning for Justice (Tolerance.org)
Grades
5 to 9tag(s): bullying (40), charactered (77), empathy (42)
In the Classroom
Include this lesson with others as you teach the character trait of empathy and incorporate these ideas into lessons about bullying and bias. As you begin your lesson with the essential questions, use a digital question response site such as Answer Garden, reviewed here, to share student responses. This site offers the opportunity to look at the entire class's responses while still allowing students to provide anonymous thoughts. Take advantage of the suggested extension activities to allow students to use their creativity to share their understanding of empathy in various ways. Some tool suggestions for the extension activities are to create comics using ToonyTool, reviewed here, share videos created with Powtoon, reviewed here, or publish podcasts using Buzzsprout, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Start Empathy Toolkit - Ashoka
Grades
K to 12tag(s): emotions (55), racism (80), social and emotional learning (144)
In the Classroom
Include lessons and materials found on this site within your classroom to develop empathy and community. Engage students in your activities by creating word clouds of words that promote empathy and understanding using a word cloud creation tool such as Aha Slides, reviewed here. Develop those words even further by using Answer Garden, reviewed here, as an anonymous answer response tool. For example, one activity focuses on Appreciating Those Behind the Scenes. Create an Answer Garden poll for students to share specific ideas on those that help behind the scenes and ways to express appreciation for their work. Extend student learning by asking them to create and share ways for others to demonstrate empathy. Provide options for students to create videos using Adobe Creative Cloud Express Video Maker, reviewed here, design digital books using Book Creator, reviewed here, or write a poem using the Poem Generator, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Activities for Teaching the 3 Kinds of Empathy - Samantha Du Preez
Grades
K to 12tag(s): charactered (77), emotions (55), social and emotional learning (144)
In the Classroom
Use this article to show students how to develop empathy for others and provide appropriate emotional support to those in need. Engage students in learning about the different forms of empathy by creating mind maps using a creation tool such as Whimsical Mind Maps, reviewed here, to provide a visual representation of how to support others in distress. If you teach younger students, help them understand emotions by creating word clouds at Aha Slides, reviewed here, using words provided by students that describe feelings. Extend learning further by creating a Padlet, reviewed here, divided into three columns representing each form of empathy. Ask students to share ideas on recognizing the different forms and methods for showing compassion towards others.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Teaching with Testimony - Discovery Education and USC Shoah Foundation
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): charactered (77), civil rights (219), emotions (55), empathy (42), holocaust (42), immigration (81), social and emotional learning (144)
In the Classroom
Be sure to view these free materials to use as a supplement to your current social studies lessons and character education activities, including empathy. These materials also are an excellent way to demonstrate the use of primary sources as a learning tool. As you build supplemental materials to include with these activities, use Padlet, reviewed here, for you and your students to curate online information instead of sharing a list of links. Use Padlet's shelf option to organize your resources by topic. For example, divide your Padlet into sections for biographies, videos, newspapers, and books related to the resource studied. Enhance learning when sharing online articles for students to view together by using Fiskkit, reviewed here, as a collaborative study tool. Fiskkit offers the ability to collaborate by adding highlights, tags and comments on information, and to label information as true or false. As a final project and to extend learning, ask students to use Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here, to share their projects demonstrating their inspiration for the future. Adobe Express offers a variety of creation tools, making it easy to provide options for students to choose how to share their learning. Provide students the option to create a video, build a webpage, or create a series of custom graphics as part of a multimedia presentation.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Reading Treks: Every Single Second - TeachersFirst
Grades
4 to 8tag(s): charactered (77), empathy (42), family (53), racism (80), virtual field trips (135)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of the many suggested classroom uses for this resource found on the Instructional Guide (PDF). Include this Reading Trek as part of lessons in empathy, racism, and character traits. Consider using content from the book as an inspiration to have students create a timeline of their friends. Find a variety of free online timeline creation tools located here. Using the map and locales, trace and then calculate distances for some Little Italy locations. Use Google My Maps, reviewed here to create and share custom maps.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Global Youth Perspectives - Global Oneness Project
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): africa (154), alaska (21), anthropology (9), cross cultural understanding (177), cultures (270), empathy (42), india (32), middle east (51), native americans (131), Project Based Learning (25), psychology (61), scotland (7), south africa (14), south america (80), sustainability (53)
In the Classroom
Utilize these free lesson ideas and videos to incorporate into any lessons on tolerance, empathy, culture, and to bring a personal touch to learning about nations around the world. Use this resource for project-based learning or blended learning: At the start of students' ongoing research, share How to Research: Ultimate Guide, reviewed here. Enhance learning by using information learned to create infographics with Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here. Instead of a typical report or assessment at the end of your unit, extend students' learning by having them use Odyssey, reviewed here to build a virtual field trip to tell the story of students in other cultures. Include links to articles, videos, student-created infographics, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Empatico - Builders
Grades
K to 12tag(s): climate (97), collaboration (105), commoncore (61), communication (119), cross cultural understanding (177), cultures (270), empathy (42), family (53), globe (11), maps (222), weather (170)
In the Classroom
Expand upon the activities included with Empatico to dig further into the topic of your activity. If you typically have students write in paper journals, try an online blog using a simple blogging tool like edublogs, reviewed here. edublog offers tools for creating class and individual blogs. Enhance and extend your Empatico project by finding a partner classroom using ePals, reviewed here; enroll your classroom and collaborate with others asking your partner classroom to participate in one of the Virtual Exchanges from Empatico, using Zoom, reviewed here or Google Meet. Instead of a written report at the end of your sessions, have students create an original video using Adobe Creative Cloud Express Video Maker, reviewed here to share information and new perspectives gained through your Empatico activities.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ClassDojo Big Ideas, Big Conversations - Class Dojo
Grades
K to 8tag(s): brain (56), emotions (55), empathy (42), learning styles (19), social and emotional learning (144), social skills (23)
In the Classroom
You may want to start your school year by sharing the three-part Empathy video series. Each video is five minutes and has a discussion guide. As a follow-up, use the Ripples of Kindness activity in small groups. Share younger students' observations on a whiteboard or poster. Older students can share their observations using a tool like Stickies.io, reviewed here. Stickies.io allows participants to add comments. Share other videos with a projector or on an interactive whiteboard to introduce a video each week and explore the discussion questions together. These videos could be very useful when preparing and motivating students for upcoming standardized testing or at the beginning of a school year to set a tone that everyone can learn. Include a link to videos on your class web page for parents to discuss at home with their student, and be sure to send home the take-home questions with topics to talk about.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Random Acts of Kindness - Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
Grades
K to 12tag(s): charactered (77), classroom management (124), emotions (55), empathy (42), service projects (16)
In the Classroom
Become a "RAKTIVIST" and start a kindness raid on unsuspecting communities, classes, or schools! Give children power and voice through their actions. Partner this with character education programs to make a difference in all the lives you touch. For example, you may want to use the Ripples of Kindness activity included in the Empathy videos at the Big Ideas Video Series, reviewed here. During social studies, find ways kindness has changed the world. Look for times in which kindness was thwarted, such as during civil wars, dictatorships, or wars. Start a research project on world leaders who have changed the world through nonviolence, education, or generosity. Explain the power of nonprofit organizations and all the lives affected. Look into your own community and school to find needs that are waiting for active, caring participants. Create school or classroom rules to promote the power of kindness. Show your students how to embed media transforming their work and enhance their learning by challenging students to create "kindness" commercials and share their knowledge with their peers in a multimedia presentation using Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here. Alternatively, students could create a video using FlexClip, reviewed here. Share them using a tool such as SchoolTube, reviewed here. Emotional Support or Autistic Support teachers may find some of the ideas here helpful for talking about how others feel and ways to show kindness in a very deliberate way.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Do2Learn - Do2Learn
Grades
K to 8tag(s): aspergers (6), autism (15), emotions (55), empathy (42), safety (64), Special Needs (45)
In the Classroom
Although intended for students with special needs, this site would also be helpful for teaching basic English vocabulary (emotions, facial expressions, positions), for safety lessons during bus safety week, and for ENL/ESL learners. All students benefit from activities that develop empathy for others. The many printables in the free areas will also help you teach basics of any primary classroom. Speech/Language teachers, emotional support teachers, and autistic support teachers will appreciate the many ways to share emotion words, including an interactive facial expression tool and the emotions color wheel. Many activities are well-suited for interactive whiteboard with the student navigating using his/her finger or touch tool. Others would make ideal learning centers at a classroom computer with headphones. Share this site with parents, as well, via a link on your class web page, since many of the activities bear repeating over and over.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Giving Tree Lesson - TeachersFirst
Grades
2 to 8tag(s): charactered (77), christmas (38), empathy (42), guided reading (32), writing (307)
In the Classroom
This lesson can be adapted for use in a language arts class with students of varying ability levels in grades 2 - 8. This lesson is also well-suited to a multi-age activity with "big buddies" and "little buddies" from upper and lower grades working together. School counselors and emotional support teachers may find this activity helpful for small groups working on social skills, character education, and specific traits such as empathy.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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