Teach Empathy

Counselors know empathy is a critical skill for social emotional development.  I use Jamaica's Blue Marker as the basis of my friendship group session with first grade.  Children's literature is a great hook to have students learn to identify the feelings of others.  This is an older book but I have yet to find a better one for teaching empathy.  After we read and discuss the story in depth, the students label and illustrate 3 feelings that each of the characters were feeling (sometimes I do the beginning, middle, and end of the book).  If you want to learn more about the importance of empathy for boys read why-its-imperative-to-teach-empathy-to-boys/