Page 37 - 101 SEL Activities

Instructions: While reading a book, watching a movie, or playing, stop and ask your child, “What do you think they are feeling?” You can also do this when you are out and about. With older children, ask them this as a follow up question to a story they have told you.
Empathy Talks (3+)
Time: 2-5minutes
Purpose: To build empathy and express kindness.
Instructions: Discuss a time someone was kind and showed you empathy. Share how that made you feel.
People Are Different (4+) Time: 2-5minutes
Purpose: To build empathy, to express kindness to others, to celebrate the differences between human beings, and to foster inclusion.
Instructions: When your child encounters someone who looks different than them use this as an opportunity to teach. Take the lead by saying something like, “I’m wondering if you are curious about...” Address the differences they may have seen and help explain how the world is made up of lots of different people. How boring it would be if we were all the same!
Answer their questions and point out shared similarities. If it is appropriate, encourage them to ask questions in a sensitive manner of the person that has piqued their curiosity. When encountering people with disabilities, highlight what the person IS able to do and take care to not define them by their disability.
Someone Else’s Shoes (4+)
Time: 2-5minutes
Purpose: To build empathy and to better understand another person.
Instructions: Get a pair of shoes. Literally practice standing in someone else’s shoes. Put on dad’s shoes and talk about how he might feel or what his day looks like. Put on mom’s shoes, a sibling’s shoes, a pair from the thrift store, etc.
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