Tell students a story in which you console someone going through a difficult time by sharing a personal experience that is similar to what the other person is facing. If you helped someone who had to move to a new town, relate how you had to move from home as a child and you worried about leaving your friends behind and not making new friends. But if the move turned out well and you made some good friends, that experience may make the other person feel a little better. Ask the kids if they have ever been in a situation where they could identify with what someone was going through because they had been through something similar themselves. Let the kids share their stories and talk about how identifying with others by relating their experiences to our own is an important aspect of empathy.
Even pre-schoolers can identify a range of emotions, so pointing out the different feelings we can experience and talking about those feelings with young children is a good start in teaching empathy. For three- and four-year-olds, make flashcards using a photo or drawing of someone's face showing an emotion such as happy, sad, scared, or mad. Hold up the cards one at a time and ask the children how that person must feel. Talk about things that make a person happy or sad. Older children can be shown pictures of people with more complex emotions such as confidence and disappointment.
Kids are drawn to puppets and can learn important lessons from them, hence the popularity of PBS' "Sesame Street." Using puppets in your classroom, have one puppet character display an emotion, such as feeling sad about getting a bad test grade. Then have a second puppet ask the class what he could do to help his puppet friend feel better. Gather several ideas and then have the second puppet use the children's ideas to help his friend. Likewise have a puppet character be happy about winning a race and have the second puppet ask the kids why winning a race can make a person feel happy.
This can be an ongoing activity that a parent can share with a child. When parent and child are watching a movie or reading a book together and they come across a person being victimized or otherwise enduring some hardship, they should talk about how the character must feel at that moment and how they would feel under similar circumstances. The more frequently children are reminded to stop and think about the feelings of others, even fictional characters, the greater degree of empathy they will develop.