Lesson 3 overview

Hello everyone! 👋

Today we want to share our next lesson, which focuses on empathy, emotions, and positive behaviour through the visualisation of the short film Joy and Heron. This activity helps children recognise feelings in others and understand different perspectives.

We’ll start with a short discussion about empathy. Students answer questions like What does empathy mean? and How does it feel to show or receive empathy? They will look up the definition online to build interest and digital literacy.

Next, they will watch The Joy Story: Joy and Heron. As they watch, children pay close attention to the characters’ expressions and actions. Afterwards, they answer a few questions to check their understanding and discuss how the dog showed empathy, why kindness matters, and some other questions.

Then, students will do a creative task of writing their own ending to the story. This activity encourages imagination, and writing practice in English. To finish the lesson, the class reflects on what they learned.

To show this better, here we have the full lesson plan:

Topic: Emotions & Feelings

Title: Understanding feelings through the movie “Joy and Heron”

Objectives and Goals

To define the concept of empathy → students search the definition online in the Reviewing previous knowledge activity.

To identify different emotions in oneself → when reflecting on how it feels to see others hurt or to receive empathy.

To identify different emotions in others → while discussing how characters in the film feel.

To analyze short videos or digital content to identify emotional expressions → watching The Joy Story: Joy and Heron and answering questions.

To recognize empathic and non-empathic behaviors → identifying the dog’s actions in the movie.

To listen actively to others → during class discussion of answers.

To respond respectfully to others’ emotions → when sharing reflections and agreeing on answers.

To use digital tools to identify emotions → applying pause, rewind, and replay to confirm understanding of the video

To be able to verbally express the experienced emotion using appropriate vocabulary in oral interactions → discussing answers aloud with classmates.

To apply strategies to manage and communicate emotions in conflict situations → reflecting on kindness and reciprocity in real life.

To reflect on one’s own attitudes towards others → in the final activity, imagining how the story could continue with empathy.

To propose ways to show empathy in daily life → through the discussion of why empathy is important.

To use digital tools to express emotions → writing a short paragraph to create an ending for the story.

The main goal of this lesson is to help young learners explore emotions, empathy, and behaviour by analysing the short film Joy and Heron. Through observing both characters’ expressions, actions, and reactions, children build emotional-literacy skills while making connections to their own experiences.

Digital competence

In this lesson wi will work on the following areas of the digital competence:

• Information and digital literacy: ability to search, filter, evaluate, and manage information and data in digital environments. This includes the ability to store and organize information for later use.
• Problem-Solving: ability to use digital tools to identify problems, find solutions, and improve processes. It includes troubleshooting technical issues, choosing the right digital tools for a task, adapting to new technologies, and using logical and critical thinking to solve digital and real-world challenges.

Skills developed during the lesson:

During this lesson, students will grow in both their social-emotional and academic skills. As they watch Joy and Heron, they will practise recognising emotions by paying close attention to the characters’ expressions, actions, and reactions. They’ll build their emotional vocabulary and learn how to talk about feelings in clearer, more confident ways. Through group discussions, they’ll use their communication skills to share ideas, listen respectfully, and consider different perspectives. When analysing the characters’ choices, students will think critically about behaviour, consequences, and what it means to act with kindness. The creative ending activity encourages imagination and helps them express their thoughts in writing in english. Basically, the lesson gives students meaningful opportunities to practise empathy, cooperation, problem-solving, and respectful decision-making while deepening their understanding of positive relationships.

Lesson plan:

Activity	Description
Reviewing previous knowledge (15 minutes)	Ask students if they know what empathy is and related questions as the ones below and give them the task to search the definition up on the Internet What does empathy mean?  How does it feel when you see other people hurt or upset? How does it feel to show or receive empathy?
Watching the movie (5 minutes)	The film is titled The Joy Story: Joy and Heron. Ask them to pay attention while watching the film to be able to answer some questions afterwards
Movie questions (15 minutes)	The students will answer some questions about the short movie to make sure they have understood it. Then, they will discuss their answers aloud with their classmates. After reaching an agreement, the teacher will ask how they can confirm whether their answers are correct. Students decide to use digital functions like pause, rewind, or replay to check or clarify their answers. Examples of the questions: What did the dog do that showed empathy for the bird?  What happened when Joy (the dog) first displayed kindness, did he get something in return? How does this happen in real life? Why is empathy important in our lives?
Create an ending (10 minutes)	The teacher will tell them to come up with a short paragraph of how they think the story might have continued/ended.

Materials: 

Movie - Joy and Heron. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQGuVKHtrxc