Children are naturally friendly and communicative, but often have a hard time expressing their emotions in a clear and understandable way. Help them hone their communication skills with a set of activities based on creating empathy, active listening, and identifying feelings and responses.

Concepts

empathy, active listening, listening, expressing feelings, feelings, emotions, communication

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Additional Tags

health

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Instructional Ideas

• Ideal for community building in a club, small group, or extracurricular organization
• Have pupils from a peer counseling class engage in the activities to train them to listen to their classmates during counseling sessions
• Use in a special education class for learners who have difficulty with communication and expressing emotions
• Send some of the activities home with class members to help parents counsel their children with behavior issues 

Classroom Considerations

• Some terms and words are written with traditional Australian spelling
• Activities may evoke strong feelings; be sure that a teacher or adult is present to mediate the activities when working on them for the first time

Pros

• Proper implementation could lead to improved behavior and classroom community
• Promotes active listening between peers, which is a lifelong skills that kids can use in any context

Cons

• None

Common Core

SL.4.1.c SL.5.1.c SL.6.1.c