Empathy Characters
How to:
Choose a moment in a story. How do you think the character might be feeling?
- In partners or as a group, use the emotions words on our resource to discuss the different feelings the character might have and why. Remember – they may feel many different things at once, how many emotions words can be used to describe how they feel?
- Next, stand in a circle. One person stands inside the circle to represent the character. Each person around the circle takes a turn – what do you wish to say to the character now you have identified their feelings? You might say words of comfort, celebration, encouragement, or reassurance. The person in the middle of the circle can respond as the character or simply listen.
DOWNLOAD our FREE resources to support the this activity. Register for the resources with the link below, if you have already registered, find the link to our resources pages in your email inbox.
For younger children
- pick a book the group know well – or read the book before you begin to remind them of the character
- use the word grid to extend vocabulary for emotions, discussing the differences between similar but nuanced feelings – e.g. are they sad, or grief-stricken, or melancholy?
- accept all the ideas for different feelings that children suggest and discuss how complex our feelings are e.g. if we lose a grandparent, we could be sad, angry, confused, worried, etc.
For older children and young people
- extend the word grid using a thesaurus to explore synonyms, discuss the nuanced differences between words describing emotions
- invite young people to do the task in pairs or small groups so they can choose their own character
- extend the task by asking the person representing the character to respond – and listening carefully to what they say
- focus on keeping the discussion within the story – this helps young people feel more secure to discuss feelings as it’s not so exposing of their own life experiences