January SEL with 1st and 2nd grades

The District’s SEL Focus for the third 9 weeks is Social Awareness and Empathy.  Ms. Ashorn visited 1st and 2nd grade classrooms to reinforce this skills through the monthly counselor lesson.  Students watched a video of kids explaining what empathy means.  We learned that empathy is perspective taking and imagining what it would be like to experience what someone else is experiencing . 

Next we read the book, We're All Wonders by RJ Palacio.  Many students have seen the movie, Wonder, based on the chapter book by the same name.  While reading the book, we imagined what it would feel like to be Auggie.  Students practiced using the Mood Meter to put themselves in Auggie's shoes. We also discussed opportunities characters in the book could have used empathy.  

After reading the book, students played a game of Kahoot! to use their social detective/social awareness skills.  They looked at pictures of young people expressing different emotions and tried to guess what they were feeling.  We discussed how to read facial expressions and body language to decide how someone is feeling.