Empathy Adventure: Fun & Engaging Pre-K Lesson Plan That Teaches Kids to Care!

Updated: Mar 27

Age Group: Pre-K (4-5 years old)Duration: 1 hour 30 minutesTheme: Understanding and Practicing Empathy

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

Recognize emotions in others and understand that people have different feelings.
Demonstrate empathetic behaviors by showing care for others.
Develop listening, cooperation, and social interaction skills.

Self-Awareness: Identifying emotions and recognizing one's impact on others.
Social Awareness: Understanding the perspectives and feelings of others.
Relationship Skills: Demonstrating empathy, cooperation, and effective communication.

1. Welcome and Introduction (10 minutes)

Objective: To introduce the concept of empathy and set a positive tone for the lesson.
- Greet the children and ask them how they are feeling.
- Talk briefly about the word “empathy” and ask if anyone knows what it means.
- Show a picture of different facial expressions and have the kids guess how each person is feeling.

2. Music Time: Hip Hop Kid's Song "Empathy" (10 minutes)

Objective: To introduce empathy in a fun and engaging way through music.
- Play the song “Empathy” from the Hip Hop Kids collection.
- Ask the children to listen closely to the lyrics and move to the beat.
- After the song, ask children how they think the people in the song felt and how it felt to listen to the song.
- Encourage kids to share a time when they helped a friend or family member.

3. Story Time (15 minutes)

Objective: To reinforce the concept of empathy through storytelling.
- Read a book about empathy: “The Invisible Boy” by Trudy Ludwig or “I Am Human” by Susan Verde).
- Pause during the reading to ask questions like: “How do you think the character is feeling?” and “What could you do to help them?”
- At the end, encourage children to discuss how the characters helped each other.

4. Video Game Time: Empathy Game (15 minutes)

Objective: To practice empathy through an interactive medium.
- Let children play a simple video game like "Kindness Kingdom" or "Emo's Friends" (games designed to teach empathy by recognizing emotions and helping others).
- Make sure each child gets a turn and coach them on how to make caring decisions within the game.
- Reflect on the game by asking: “What did you do to help in the game?” and “How did you feel when you helped others?”

5. Activity Time: Coloring and Group Activity (30 minutes)

Part 1: Coloring Time

Objective: To reinforce the theme of empathy through artistic expression.
- Provide two themed coloring sheets:
  1. Feelings Circle: Children standing in a circle, holding hands, and displaying different emotions, perfect for teaching empathy through unity. Let me know if you like this new design!