Empathy Rocks in the USA: The Houston Floods

Find the Lesson Here

Students will learn about the hardships caused by natural disasters, specifically through the 2017 floods in Houston that followed Hurricane Harvey. They will find out small ways they can help, and make bracelets to remind them of empathy.

Each month we will provide our “Empathy Countdown,” with 5 Acts of Kindness, 4 suggested art lessons with instructions, 3 Reading Guides, 2 Activities, and 1 Empathy Inspiration. Each has a lesson about empathy that can be discussed either before or after the art project is completed. These are simply extras provided for you if you would like to supplement the lessons, and are not required. Most projects shouldn’t take more than thirty minutes and are easy and fun for students.

Supplemental Guides

 
 

Acts of Kindness

  1. Compliment the first three people you talk to each day

  2. Say something nice to five classmates today (it can even just be “Great job!”)

  3. Hold the door for someone who is behind you

  4. Donate old towels or blankets to an animal shelter

  5. Say hi to two people at your school who you don’t know every day

 

Art Projects

 

Helping Handprint Wreath

Labor Day Tools

Paper Backpacks

Paper Plate Umbrellas

 

Reading Guides

 

Elmer and the Flood

Flood

Professor Fergus Fahrenheit

 

Classroom activities

 

Acts of Kindness Challenge

The Connection Game

 

 Empathy Inspiration

At Mohr Elementary School in California, students wanted to help victims of Hurricane Harvey. These amazing kids decided to start packaging up meals for families affected by the hurricane and subsequent flooding. Younger students decorated lunch bags while older students packaged all the food inside. In the end, they sent 12,744 meals!

At the same time, other classes across the country started gathering donations to send. Those donations included money, school supplies, basic necessities, water, and more. Empathy truly does have the power to change the world!