I got the opportunity to collaborate with our wonderful school counselor Shannon for a Well-Being Book Series session for our Kindergarten to grade 4 classes.  It was Kindness Week at the OJCS and the focus today was empathy.  Our students got to learn a very valuable lesson about the meaning of empathy and how it feels to ‘stand in someone else’s shoes.’

We started off the session by reading each group a book.  For our K and 1 groups we read ‘When I Care About Others’ by Cornelia Maude Spelman.  It is a very simple book but a valuable teaching tool for younger students.

For our grade 2 to 4s, we read a beautiful book called ‘The Three Questions’ by Jon J. Muth about a boy who is trying to answer three important questions;

1. When is the best time to do things?
2. Who is the most important one?
3. What is the right thing to do?

After reading the story Shannon discussed the word ‘Empathy’ with the students and then did an exercise where they took turns standing on a pair of shoe prints and imagining what others would feel in made-up scenarios.

The kids loved the exercise and the stories.  I am really looking forward to working more with Shannon on this book series and can’t wait to choose books for our next session!