Students will read a short text featuring a character in an emotionally complex situation, identify the character's feelings and motivations, and connect the character's experience to their own.

Students will distinguish shallow from deep curiosity, craft open questions that invite someone to share their experience, and practice asking and listening.

Students will identify everyday relationship behaviors that help classmates feel safe and supported, and commit to one ally action for the week.

Students will interview a classmate about what makes them feel nervous, appreciated or misunderstood, listen without judgment, and introduce their partner's perspective to the group.

Students will predict a partner's reaction to a scenario, check the prediction against the partner's actual response, and conclude that asking beats assuming.

Students will define what makes a space feel safe from different classmates' perspectives, and contribute to shared agreements about how the class will care for one another.

Students will discuss one scenario in a round-robin circle, build on each other's interpretations, and reach a shared understanding of what the person feels, thinks and needs.

Students will distinguish listening to understand from listening to fix or judge, and practice an empathetic check-in with active-listening responses.

Students move to one of three designated spots in the room (Agree, Disagree, Not Sure) in response to empathy statements read aloud, then discuss why they chose their spot and what empathy could look like in each scenario.

Students complete the "Are You Empathetic?" self-assessment worksheet and discuss empathetic listening behaviors as a class, then receive a character card from "Someone Else's Shoes" and practice empathy in pairs by taking turns sharing their character's situation while the partner listens and responds with genuine empathy.

Students brainstorm and map clique nicknames at their school, discuss what distinguishes cliques from friendship groups, complete a Clique Survey reflecting on their own social circle, then practice reaching across group lines through a chosen activity — writing an anonymous letter to someone in another clique, becoming pen pals with a randomly drawn classmate, or contributing to an anonymous issue box.

Students have quick conversations with multiple partners while secretly tallying dots on each other's sheets every time their partner exhibits a specific assigned behavior (like making eye contact or saying "like") — then, after the reveal that each dot represents "breaking" someone's cultural norm, they discuss what it felt like and write a private reflection on how to honor others' norms going forward.

Students complete an "Are You Empathetic?" self-check and discuss empathetic listening behaviors as a class, then pair up with character cards to role-play sharing a situation while their partner practices empathetic listening — maintaining eye contact, not interrupting, and asking follow-up questions — before switching roles and debriefing with specific feedback.

Students mingle around the room and repeatedly "partner up" with whoever is nearest, each time sharing a positive memory about a third group member — focusing on moments when that person showed good values or was an ally — then debrief together about what the stories revealed about the community.

Students will explore different types of greeting cards and then design and write their own to build a class card collection, practicing empathy by thinking about how to acknowledge and respond to others' experiences through words and art.

To introduce the concept of doing a good job by yourself and in a team, and to have participants explore ways they can be helpful to each other and their communities.

Students watch Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” and step into the role of Emotion Ambassadors — brainstorming, prioritizing, and electing peers to lead initiatives that bring creativity and emotional intelligence to the wider school community.

Students journal about someone who seems very different from them, then brainstorm a list of things they likely have in common with that person to see them in a new light — followed by a discussion on how finding shared identity builds empathy and respect.

Students listen to the story of Ryan White, then work with a partner to complete a Compassion and Dignity word map before writing a first-person story from either the perspective of a student with a serious illness or a compassionate friend.

Students will write their own definition of support, then collaborate in small groups and a gallery walk to build a shared class vision of what supportive behavior looks like — which gets posted in the room as an ongoing reference.