Skills for Tomorrow
Month 6 - The Power of Empathy
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Introduction – The Power of Empathy
This part of the course develops speaking, listening, and comprehension through the theme of empathy. Children begin by watching an animated video about Florence Nightingale, followed by structured class and peer discussions about what she noticed, how she responded, and why her care mattered.
Children practise identifying emotional cues, considering another person’s perspective, asking thoughtful questions, and expressing their ideas clearly. Emphasise that empathy is not about assuming we know exactly how someone feels. It begins with observing carefully, wondering respectfully, listening, and checking what support may be helpful.
These conversations develop emotional vocabulary, perspective-taking, confidence, and a caring classroom culture while reinforcing that small actions can help another person feel seen, safe, and included.
This month, we’re focusing on one powerful skill: empathy. Empathy means noticing how somebody else might be feeling, imagining what their experience may be like, and responding with care.
We’ll begin by watching an animated video about Florence Nightingale, the woman known as the Lady with the Lamp. After the video, you’ll discuss her story with your friends. What did Florence notice? How did she show people that they had not been forgotten?
Then, just like Florence, you’ll choose a personal challenge to strengthen your empathy. You might listen carefully when someone speaks, include somebody who feels left out, help without being asked, or notice when someone may need kindness.
Throughout the month, you’ll practise pausing, noticing, listening, and helping. You’ll discover how empathy can build trust, strengthen friendships, and bring light into another person’s world.
Remember: empathy can begin with one simple question: How might that person be feeling?
Print Your ‘Skills for Tomorrow’ Booklet
This activity encourages children to take ownership of their learning by independently documenting their progress in a dedicated Empathy Booklet. As they complete each part of the monthly challenge, pupils record actions, observations, reflections, and achievements, creating a personal record of growth.
The booklet supports emotional literacy by helping children connect what they notice with the choices they make. It promotes accountability, self-assessment, and pride without turning caring behaviour into a competition.
The completed booklets also form a lasting portfolio, allowing children to revisit their efforts, recognise changes in their thinking, and celebrate growth across all 12 skills.
As you begin this month’s challenge, you’ll need a special place to record the progress you make. Don’t worry: we’ve created an Empathy Booklet just for you!
Print your own copy and, as you complete each activity, fill it in to capture the kind actions you take, the feelings you notice, what you learn, and the moments that make you proud.
One day, when you graduate, you can look back and see how your understanding of other people has grown.
Remember: there are 12 booklets to collect throughout the course!
Tell us About Yourself - My favourite Things!
This activity helps children begin thinking about the simple idea that people can like different things. By sharing their favourite food, drink, sport and animal, children start to notice that their own preferences may be different from those of their classmates.
These small differences provide an easy and age-appropriate introduction to empathy. Children learn that there is no single “right” favourite, and that listening to what others enjoy helps us understand them better.
Use the completed pages to encourage conversation, comparison and curiosity. Invite children to find things they have in common, notice differences, and practise responding to one another with interest, kindness and respect.
Before We Begin…
Before we start the course, we’d love to learn about some of your favourite things!
On the first page of your booklet, tell us your favourite drink, food, sport and animal. Then, use the box to draw a picture of your favourite animal and colour it in.
We all like different things, and that is what makes getting to know each other so interesting. Have fun making this page all about the things you love!
Read this Week’s Story - The Girl Who Carried the Light
This week introduces empathy through a simplified, age-appropriate account of Florence Nightingale’s work caring for sick and injured soldiers. Children explore how she noticed suffering, imagined what others might need, listened, and responded with practical kindness.
Model the skill by sharing a simple time when you noticed how someone might be feeling and checked what would help. This connects empathy to familiar experiences and shows that caring involves both understanding and respectful action.
During the reading, pause to ask open-ended questions such as:
“Why do you think Florence kept thinking about the soldiers?”
“How did she show the soldiers that they had not been forgotten?”
“What could you do if someone in our class felt lonely or worried?”
Encourage children to talk in pairs or small groups using sentence starters such as:
“I think empathy means…”
“Florence brought light to others by…”
“I can show empathy when…”
The aim is to help children internalise empathy through discussion, reflection, and action. Encourage wondering rather than guessing, and remind pupils that listening to the person is an important part of understanding what they may need.
Each month, you’ll read the true story of a famous person who showed exactly how to use the skill we’re learning to practise.
This week, we’re focusing on empathy, and we’ll be reading the story of Florence Nightingale, the woman known as the Lady with the Lamp.
Florence noticed when people were sad, worried, lonely, or in need of help. When she heard that sick and injured soldiers were suffering far from home, she imagined how frightened and alone they might feel and decided to care for them.
She listened to the soldiers, comforted them, helped improve the hospital, and walked through the dark corridors carrying a lamp. Her greatest gift was not the lamp in her hand, but the empathy in her heart.
Read or listen to the story opposite, then talk with your friends about what Florence noticed, how she helped, and why her actions brought light to others.
Comprehension Questions – Florence Nightingale and Empathy
This activity supports early reading and comprehension through Florence Nightingale’s story, simplified text, key vocabulary, missing-word sentences, and guided questions. Children identify information, recall events, sequence ideas, and make simple inferences about how people in the story may have felt.
Working with peers encourages oral language development and collaborative thinking. Invite pupils to explain which clues helped them understand a feeling or action, while recognising that different interpretations can be discussed respectfully.
The focus is on reading for meaning, emotional vocabulary, perspective-taking, recall, and discussion. These skills help children connect empathy with careful observation, thoughtful listening, and helpful action.
To learn more about this inspiring person and how she developed the powerful skill of empathy, read the story opposite carefully.
Look at the questions, explore the key vocabulary, and try to fill in the missing words in the sentences.
Work with the friends around you to complete your task card. Talk about what you’ve learned, ask each other questions, and share your ideas.
Let’s discover how Florence Nightingale became the Lady with the Lamp by noticing, caring, and helping others.
Research - Choose Your Inspirational Person!
This activity develops independence and research skills by asking children to choose one of 12 inspirational figures to investigate. After learning about Florence Nightingale’s empathy, pupils select another person, gather information at home, and record three key facts in their research booklet.
They also create a drawing of the person, combining factual research with creative expression. Encourage children to look beyond achievements and consider who was helped, what the person may have noticed, and why their actions mattered.
This process supports self-directed learning, critical thinking, source awareness, and the ability to present information in an engaging, personal way.
Now that you’ve learned about Florence Nightingale and how empathy guided her choices and helped her care for others, it’s your turn!
Choose one of the 12 inspirational people from our list. Once you’ve chosen, go home and do your own research. Use your research booklet to record three amazing facts about this person, and then draw a picture of them to bring your research to life.
As you research, see if you can discover how your chosen person noticed others, understood a problem, or used their actions to help.
Choose your Challenge
This activity empowers children to practise empathy through sustained, meaningful action. After exploring the concept, pupils select one achievable challenge to continue for a full month.
Repeated practice helps children move from understanding empathy as an idea to using it as a daily habit. Encourage choices that are specific, observable, age-appropriate, and respectful of other people’s wishes.
By reflecting on why they chose the challenge and how their actions may affect others, pupils develop perspective-taking, responsibility, self-awareness, and independence. The focus is progress and sincere care, not public comparison or reward.
Now that you’re an expert on empathy, it’s time to start strengthening this skill through your own actions.
This month, choose one caring action to practise for the entire month. The secret to building empathy is to pause, notice, listen, and respond with kindness, even when you are busy or unsure what to do.
Look at the list of possible actions and choose one you believe you can continue until the end of the month. You might listen carefully, include others, help at home, care for a living thing, or check whether somebody needs support.
Once you’ve chosen, write down why you selected that challenge, how it may help another person, and what you hope to learn.
Keep on Track – Time Management
This activity develops independence and time-management skills by asking children to maintain a daily record of their chosen empathy challenge. Pupils write a brief sentence describing what they noticed, what they did, and what they learned.
Daily reflection encourages consistent action and self-monitoring. Whether listening carefully, including someone, helping at home, or caring for a living thing, the focus is on noticing needs and responding respectfully rather than seeking praise.
Weekly evidence reinforces accountability and helps pupils recognise that empathy grows through repeated choices. Protect children’s dignity and privacy: photographs should show the action, object, or completed task, never another child during a vulnerable or upsetting moment.
This is the part of the course where you finish what you started!
We’ve created a daily checklist counter for you to write one simple sentence each day about what you noticed and how you practised your empathy challenge.
You might write about listening to somebody, inviting a person to join you, helping at home, caring for an animal or plant, or asking someone what support they would like.
This part is all about turning care into action and continuing the caring habit you chose.
At the end of each week, take a photo, print it, and place it in the space provided as evidence of your journey. You could photograph a helpful action, something you made, or a caring task you completed.
Reflection and Quiz
This activity guides children to reflect on their month-long empathy challenge, encouraging them to think about the feelings they noticed, the choices they made, and the effect their actions may have had on others. Using the Skills for Tomorrow booklet, pupils respond to targeted questions that support simple self-assessment and awareness of personal growth.
Completing the online quiz reinforces their understanding while celebrating progress with a certificate photo as a tangible reward. The process helps children recognise that empathy involves noticing, perspective-taking, listening, and helpful action.
Keep the reflection positive and specific. Celebrate effort and growth while reminding pupils that empathy is not something we complete once. It is a skill we continue practising as part of a respectful, caring community.
You’ve completed Month Six of your Kindergarten Diploma, and you’re well on your way to earning your full certificate at the end of the year!
There is still a journey ahead, but now it’s time to reflect on how you felt while practising empathy for a whole month.
Answer the questions opposite in your Skills for Tomorrow booklet. Think about what you noticed, how you responded, and whether your actions helped someone feel seen, heard, or included. Then complete your online quiz by clicking the button below.
When you’re finished, take a photo of yourself holding your certificate and place it next to your reflections to complete Month Six of this caring journey.
Well done for bringing light to others!
Getting Your Certificate
This final step builds reflection, recall, and self-assessment skills. The quiz reinforces students’ understanding of determination, resilience, and growth while rewarding their effort with certification. Encourage learners to view the certificate as a symbol of their personal progress, not just a score.
Consider reviewing key ideas beforehand, offering support where needed, and celebrating every student’s achievement. Extension: invite learners to share one way they will apply determination in their own lives to strengthen lasting impact.
You have explored the power of empathy — discovering how kindness, compassion, listening, and understanding can help you make a positive difference every day. Throughout this month, you have learned that empathy means noticing how others may be feeling, listening carefully, and responding with care.
To celebrate your journey, you will now complete a short quiz on the skills and lessons you have gained this month.
If you achieve 80% or more, you will proudly receive your certificate. This is a way of recognising the kindness, understanding, and empathy you have demonstrated throughout the course.
Well done for learning how empathy can help others feel seen, heard, and included. Just like Florence Nightingale, you can bring light to others through simple acts of kindness, care, and understanding.
