Happy Friday; today I'm thinking about empathy.
Grace-colored glasses? Sign me up.
It's the perfect complement to today's PPBF.
Author and Illustrator: Diane Alber
Publisher: Diane Alber Art LLC
Birth date: April 17, 2021
Suitable for: ages 4-8
Themes: empathy, understanding, perspective
Brief synopsis: This gem is an instruction manual for empathy and perspective-taking.
Opening page: Hi, my name is empathy. I'm here to help you understand the feelings of others so you can create a connection, make a friend, and show people you care about them.
Read a review {here}.
Download a freebie empathy coloring page {here}.
Show a Sesame Street clip explaining empathy {here}.
Why I like this book: This book, part of the A Better You! series by Diane Alber, explains empathy in such a concise and simple way. It not only explains the big concepts of empathy and perspective in easily-relatable ways, but it also introduces us to Feeling Detective, who gives us examples of putting empathy into action.
Head. Heart. Hands.
Use an image like this one to talk about perspective.
Do you see a goat or a bird?
Then let your students give their viewpoints in a friendly debate.
Adults can work on elevating empathy, too,
with help from books like UnSelfie by Michele Borba.
There are SO many ways to practice the three steps of empathy. Actively model and teach it to your little leaders, then practice it by seizing teachable moments as they arise. When kids get in conflict in your class, for example, ask them to tell you what happened in the viewpoint and voice of the other child.
Teach them the Empathy Switch. Let a thumbs up on the one hand represent you and a pinky up on the other hand represent me. Now switch and put me as a pinky up on the other hand at the same time as you becomes the thumbs up on the opposite hand, like my friend Chase is doing in this picture. As you get fluid, add this little ditty:
It's empathy. It's empathy.
When you put yourself in place of me,
that's empathy.
Let this book serve as the perfect segue
for all of these precious empathy moments;
check it out, then go to Susanna Hill's blog
for today's other amazing PPBF picks.
Oh, and maybe it's just the farmer's daughter in me,
but I see a goat. Every time. 😉
It took me a minute, but I finally saw the goat! Perspective pictures always lead to meaningful conversations!
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