“I thought this might be boring… but this is the best day ever. I love creating for other people.”
— 5th Grade Student
In today’s world, beyond academics, learners need opportunities to practice compassion, understand real human needs, and use their creativity to make a meaningful difference.
At the end of 2025, our 5th graders completed a Compassion in Action project rooted in compassionate innovation—a blend of service learning, creativity, and future-focused skills. The goal was to help students move beyond “learning about problems” to designing thoughtful, compassionate responses to real community needs. More than a one-day service "project", this was a multi-phase learning experience where students built empathy, researched systems, partnered with local organizations such as KC Pet Project, Operation Breakthrough, and Benton House Assisted Living to create products the organization needed and creative awareness projects to educate others in our school community.
Why Compassion + Character Matters
We intentionally grounded this work in character education, specifically compassion and creativity, because students don’t just learn empathy by hearing about it. They learn it by:
- Stepping into real human stories
- Wrestling with complexity
- Making choices that affect others
- Reflecting on their role as leaders in their community
Service became the context for learning, not the end goal.
Going Deeper with Pages + Thinking Routines
A key tool throughout the project was Apple Pages, which became each student’s multimodal Compassion in Action Journal. We chose Pages so students could write, sketch, annotate, and organize their thinking. They could also embed photos and videos of their creative process.
We used Design Thinking to scaffold the learning experience as deep learning often begins (and ends) with empathy. We paired Pages with Harvard Project Zero thinking routines (such as See–Think–Wonder, Step Inside, Connect–Extend–Challenge) to help students slow down, deepen their thinking, and connect empathy to action. Rather than rushing to “make something,” students learned to notice, care, define, create, and reflect.
The Result
By the end of the project, every student produced:
- A service contribution aligned to a real organization’s needs such as:
- Requested pet treats for KC Pet Project
- Creative activities for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House
- Books and coloring pages (handmade on Canva) for Operation Breakthrough
- Requested Christmas decor for older adults living at Benton House assisted living.
- A creative awareness product to share with our EPiC community (digital storytelling, posters, poetry, comics, or mini-documentaries)
- A digital compassion journal in Pages that documented learning, leadership growth, and impact
Most importantly, students didn’t just ask “What did I make?” They asked, “Who did this help and why does it matter?”
I’d love to hear how others are using Apple tools to support service learning, character development, or creative civic engagement in their classrooms.
Attached is Compassion in Action Journal.
January 20, 2026 .
English
Love this Susan! This is Challenge Based Learning and Design Thinking at its core - a connection to identify, empathize, help, and learn. Thanks for the share!
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