Lesson Plan

Empathy Builder Blueprint

Guide 6th graders through interactive empathy-building and cooperative role-play activities to strengthen peer relationships and practice perspective-taking and supportiveness.

Developing empathy and cooperation helps students build positive relationships, manage conflicts, and create a more supportive classroom culture—key CASEL relationship skills at Tier 2.

Audience

Time

Approach

Materials

Prep

Review and Setup

5 minutes

Step 1

Warm-Up Discussion

5 minutes

Step 2

Perspective-Taking Exercise

10 minutes

Step 3

Cooperative Role-Play Challenge

8 minutes

Step 4

Reflection & Gratitude Circle

7 minutes

Slide Deck

Cooperation in Action

Welcome everyone! Introduce the workshop’s purpose: strengthening friendships through empathy and cooperation. Review the agenda: spotting empathy cues, perspective-taking tips, teamwork challenge, and reflection.

Spotting Empathy Cues

Explain that understanding feelings starts with noticing clues. Display an example image or ask students to imagine a friend looking sad or excited.

Perspective-Taking Tips

Introduce perspective-taking: imagining how another person sees a situation. Ask students to volunteer examples and connect to empathy cues.

Teamwork Challenge

Explain the teamwork prompt. Divide students into groups of three. Encourage planning a short scene that shows both empathy and cooperation.

Reflection & Gratitude

Distribute journals or paper. Give students 2–3 minutes to write, then reconvene in a circle for sharing.