Teaching Compliments to Build Empathy
Teaching students to give compliments and receive compliments is a key social emotional skill for building empathy. Break it down into simple steps.
ReadAbout This Resource
Knowing how to accept compliments is a critical social skill that lets students build and maintain friendships. In this lesson, students will understand what receiving a compliment should look like and shouldn't. The lesson provides scaffolded instruction, multiple practice activities, and opportunities for reflection. The engaging winter-themed resource will help target essential social-emotional skills while connecting with students.
What's Included
3-Step Mini-Lesson on Accepting Compliments
Introduction: Discuss and Character Example
Discuss with students that there are great and not-so-great ways to accept compliments. Use fairy tale characters like Cinderella to show them different ways to respond to compliments.
Group Activity: Compliment Response Snowballs
Students will actively engage in the learning process through a group activity. They will sort responses to compliments using response snowballs and a sorting mat.
Independent Activities: Worksheets
- Accepting Compliments Worksheet - Students write out a response in which they accept a compliment.
- Revise Responses Worksheet - Students revise a response where someone deflected or rejected a compliment.
- Reflection Page - Students answer three reflection questions about accepting compliments.
Supplemental Materials
Posters
- Don’t Reject or Deflect, Accept.
- Ways We Deflect and Reject,
- How to Accept a Compliment,
- Responses to Compliments
Suggestions for Follow-Up Class Activities
Accepting Compliments Sentence Stems
Exit Tickets