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Learning Through Empathy (Ages 5-8)

Learning Through Empathy (Ages 5-8)

This playlist is intended to help students explore, discuss, and ultimately express empathy, an essential skill for navigating diversity and conflicts inherent in our global society. Educators will have a rich collection at their disposal to incorporate into different areas of the curriculum, including social studies, language arts, conflict resolution, and others.

Pour visionner cette sélection en français, cliquez ici.

Films in This Playlist Include
Nunavut Animation Lab: The Bear Facts
Private Eyes
Maq and the Spirit of the Woods
The Zoo
A Family for Maria
Asthma Tech
Big Mouth
Bully Dance
Door to Door
Flawed
Ludovic – Magic in the Air
Hannah’s Story
The Orange
When All the Leaves Are Gone

  • Nunavut Animation Lab: The Bear Facts
    2010|3 min

    In this animated short, a self-important colonial explorer emerges from a sailing ship and plants a flag on the Arctic ice, as a bemused Inuit hunter looks on. Then the explorer plants another, and another, and another, while the hunter, clearly not impressed that his land has been “discovered,” quietly goes about his business. In this charming and humorous re-imagining of first contact between Inuit and European, Jonathan Wright brings us the story of a savvy hunter and the ill-equipped explorer he outwits.

  • Private Eyes
    2011|14 min

    This 3D stereoscopic animation tells the story of Matthew, a boy who is never afraid of the dark. Since he's been in darkness all his life, Matthew has eyes where other people only have hands, feet or ears. This week is Matthew's birthday and he's very curious about the surprise his parents are preparing for him. Can he find it?

  • Maq and the Spirit of the Woods
    2006|8 min

    This animated short tells the story of Maq, a Mi'kmaq boy who realizes his potential with the help of inconspicuous mentors. When an elder in the community offers him a small piece of pipestone, Maq carves a little person out of it. Proud of his work, the boy wants to impress his grandfather and journeys through the woods to find him. Along the path Maq meets a curious traveller named Mi'gmwesu. Together they share stories, medicine, laughter, and song. Maq begins to care less about making a good impression and more about sharing the knowledge and spirit he's found through his creation. Part of the Talespinners collection, which uses vibrant animation to bring popular children's stories from a wide range of cultural communities to the screen.

  • The Zoo
    2018|11 min

    The Zoo follows the parallel lives of a polar bear cub in a popular city zoo and a Chinese boy who visits him until they’re both in their twilight years.

  • A Family for Maria
    1992|5 min

    An animated film for five- to eight-year-olds about international adoption and the difficulty of adapting to a new environment. The film also gives a glimpse into the problems of abandoned children in developing countries. In A Family for Maria/Une famille pour Maria, love triumphs over the insecurity of a little Latin American girl who finds a new family in North America.

  • Asthma Tech
    2006|7 min

    In this animated short, young Winston, who suffers from chronic asthma, isn’t able to participate in the everyday activities of his peers and classmates. He copes with the predicament through his vivid imagination, with paper and crayons. On one particularly rainy afternoon, Winston discovers that the magic of imagination has the power to transform and empower, and his skills and talents save the day.

    Part of the Talespinners collection, which uses vibrant animation to bring popular children’s stories from a wide range of cultural communities to the screen.

  • Big Mouth
    2012|8 min

    This animated short tells the story of Trudy, a little girl who is equal parts truthful and rude. A bright-minded and quick-witted child, Trudy has an unfiltered and deeply curious way of looking at the world. Here, events force her to question what it means to speak the truth, and comes to understand how our differences make us unique.

  • Bully Dance
    2000|10 min

    This short animated film examines the roles of peer pressure, accountability and power struggles in bullying – a pervasive phenomenon.

    When a bully picks on a smaller member of his group, the whole community becomes involved. The bully, they learn, is himself a victim at home.

    Bully Dance is part of ShowPeace, a series of lively, animated films designed to explore conflict and dispute resolution.

  • Door to Door
    1992|4 min

    An animated film for five-to eight-year-olds that presents the familiar situation of big kids bullying little ones in the schoolyard. This time, however, the little kids refuse to accept it and their constructive efforts in their own defence prove that might does not necessarily mean right. Film without words.

  • Flawed
    2010|12 min

    Flawed is nothing less than a beautiful gift from Andrea Dorfman's vivid imagination, a charming little film about very big ideas. Dorfman has the uncanny ability to transform the intensely personal into the wisely universal. She deftly traces her encounter with a potential romantic partner, questioning her attraction and the uneasy possibility of love. But, ultimately, Flawed is less about whether girl can get along with boy than whether girl can accept herself, imperfections and all.

    This film is both an exquisite tribute to the art of animation and a loving homage to storyboarding, a time-honoured way of rendering scenes while pointing the way to the dramatic arc of the tale.

  • Ludovic - Magic in the Air
    2002|12 min

    It's autumn in all its glory and Ludovic is playing in the park. A bigger teddy bear knocks him down, and the little cub is rescued by a little girl teddy bear. Her kind gesture teaches Ludovic that the magic of friendship can help him face the fiercest bully.

  • Hannah's Story
    2007|29 min

    At the age of 5, Hannah Taylor spotted her first homeless person in the back alleys of Winnipeg. This experience not only troubled her, but it drove her to do nothing less than change the world. The Ladybug Foundation, the charity Hannah helped establish, has raised over a million dollars to date. With her huge heart and can-do attitude, she preaches a simple message of "Share a little of what you have and always care about others." As this short documentary proves, we all have a lot to learn from Hannah's story.

  • The Orange
    1992|4 min

    In this animated film for five- to eight-year-olds, a group of schoolchildren are amazed to discover that one of their classmates does not have enough to eat. With the help of their teacher, the children come to understand that his hardship affects them all and that the fight against poverty requires solidarity and sharing. Film without words.

  • When All the Leaves Are Gone
    2010|17 min

    As the only First Nations student in an all-white 1940s school, eight-year old Wato is keenly aware of the hostility towards her. She deeply misses the loving environment of the reserve she once called home, and her isolation is sharpened by her father’s serious illness. When Wato’s teacher reads from a history book describing First Nations peoples as ignorant and cruel, it aggravates her classmates’ prejudice. Shy and vulnerable Wato becomes the target of their bullying and abuse. Alone in her suffering, she finds solace and strength in the protective world of her magical dreams.

    Inspired by personal experiences of writer and director Alanis Obomsawin, When All the Leaves are Gone combines autobiography, fiction and fable to create a deeply moving story about the power of dreams.