Empathy and kindness are things that we desperately need to teach our kids to help them become well-adjusted, functioning members of society as adults.
This can be a difficult and frustrating struggle for parents and teachers alike.
The following writing prompts help with empathetic understanding and compassionate responses.
Hopefully, we can help kids care about one another and ensure they don’t let their emotions get the best of them.
Using the Prompts:
These might be used as the whiteboard question of the day occasionally, and then followed up with discussion.
You might assign them based on your observances of your students.
Or you could send them home to work with their parents so the whole family is involved.
The Prompts:
- Write about a fight you had with someone from the other person’s perspective.
- Write a story about being respectful, even if you don’t agree with someone.
- How do you respect someone if you disagree?
- Make up a story about someone who is sad, and how the people they are around help them.
- What does it mean to have courage? How does courage help others around you?
- Write a story about someone who judges other people and how that causes problems for them.
- Describe how you show you care about others.
- Describe a character from a book being critical of others and fixing it.
- Do you like it when other people are critical of you? How do you feel? What can you do to prevent acting that way yourself?
- Write a story about what happens when you forget to be kind.
- Write a story from the perspective of someone who doesn’t care about others, but then learns to eventually.
- Why is it important to be kind? How are you kind?
- Why is it so hard to forgive someone? Write a story about it.
- How important is it to be honest, even if it hurts someone’s feelings? How do you balance the two things?
- Rewrite a story you like, but put yourself in the main characters shoes and describe how you feel.
- Does it make you happy to make others happy? Why?
- Why is caring for other’s feelings important?
- What is the best part about being kind to others? Why?
- Write a story where the main character is the most considerate person in the world.
- Can you write about a time when someone’s feelings were hurt? What did you learn from it?
- Write a story where the main character benefits from the kindness of another.
- What happens when we forget to be kind? How do you feel when it happens to you?
- What do you do when you see someone else being mean to another person? What do you do?
- What does it feel like when you’re mean?
- What do you feel like when someone is mean to you?
- What do you think your parents feel like when you do something that hurts their feelings? Write a story from their point of view.
- What does it mean to have courage even when it is hard?
- Define being empathetic in your own words. Do your best, there are no wrong answers.
- Write a story about getting carried away and someone’s feelings being hurt. How does it resolve?
- Write about someone going out of their way to help you.
- Write a story about a person who has to learn to care about others.
- What does it mean to take a walk in another person’s shoes? Why is understanding this important?
- How do you show someone you care? Why do you show this?
- Write a story about how swords can impact someone.
- Do you know anyone who needs a friend? Why? What would you do to be their friend?
- Can you rewrite a story so that the main character learns a lesson about kindness?
- Write a story about an animal that has to learn to care for others.
- Describe a time when you learned how easy it is to forget other people have feelings.
- Can you tell about a time when you forgave someone who said something mean?
- Write a story about a time when you had to ask for forgiveness.
- Describe why forgiveness is important.
- Can you identify when someone needs a kind word? Describe how.
- What is your favorite way to make sure everyone is treated well?
When you Need More…
Empathy and kindness never go out of style.
If you need more prompts, many thousands of original resources are available on across our website.
Feel free to also share any resources you think we may have missed, or drop us a line with any suggestions you might have. We’re all ears!
