These Learning Links provide ten quick-and-easy, five-minute mini-lessons to promote student thought and dialogue about service and civic engagement. You may use as many of them as you wish, and in whatever order best meets your needs and the interest of your students. The purpose of these mini-lessons is to provide a deeper understanding of philanthropy (the giving of time, talent, and treasure for the common good) and to reinforce the lesson focus. These Learning Links also promote the development of character traits, civic engagement, and student leadership. As appropriate to your grade level, it is recommended that students play an active leadership role in presenting these mini-lessons to their classmates.

1. Read: A copy cat is someone who tries to act or say the same thing that some else does. The term copy cat comes from watching little kittens trying to act like their mothers. That’s how they learn. And that’s how we learn. We watch others and try to do or say what they do or say.
   
   Discuss: Why is it important to be a copy cat sometimes? Why is it important that we try to copy cat good things and not bad things? During our service project how can we be a good example for someone to copy cat?
2. Read: “I don’t want to go to school today!” Claire announced to her mother.
   
   “Oh but dear you have to go to school. Why don’t you want to go to school today?”
   
   “I didn’t get my homework done. And besides it is gym day and I don’t like gym.”
   
   “I know how you feel, “mother said. “But I’m afraid you don’t have a choice.”
   
   Later when Claire returned home from school that day, she was beaming. “My you must have had a good day today after all,” mother said.
   
   “It was a great day!” Claire said. She went on to tell her mother about a new student in her classed named, Elizabeth. She told her mom how she helped show Elizabeth around the school, how she helped her put her things in her desk. How she played with her at recess time and sat by her at lunch time. “She talks a little different and sometimes she hard to understand. But she told me I was her friend. And do you know what?” Claire asked and then answered her own question. “She really doesn’t like gym either.”
   
   Discuss: Sometimes when we are feeling sad or worried about something we don’t want to do, we discover that by doing something for other people makes us feel happy again. What did Claire do that made her beam? Why are having and making new friends important? What might our service project have to do with friendships? How do we hope everyone feels when he or she is involved in our planned service project?
3. Read: Once upon a time there was a king in a far away land. He was a powerful king. He punished anyone who did anything wrong. He had no friends and he was very unhappy. One day when he was particularly grumpy all of his servants hid. They didn’t want to get in his way. Nobody bothered the king, but he was lonely. He sighed to himself, “I wish I had a friend.” All of a sudden he heard a PLOP! The king turned around to see a little girl sitting under his favorite apple tree. “Hi king, “she said. “I’m sorry I disturbed you. I fell.”
   
   "Were you stealing my apples?” asked the king.
   
   “Well yes,” said the little girl, “I was very hungry.” Then she smiled at him.
   
   “Then I should punish you.” He said sternly. Her smile disappeared and he felt cold and alone. Just them he remembered something his old nurse told him. She told him how important it was to forgive people if you wanted to have friends.
   
   “Everyone makes mistakes his nurse,” she told him. So the king went over by the little girl and sitting next to her he said, “I forgive you.” The little girl’s wonderful smile returned. From that day on the King’s kingdom was a much happier place.
   
   Discuss: Why might people feel cold and alone if we fail to smile at them? Do you think everyone makes mistakes? Why is it important that we forgive people who might have done something that we didn’t like? What are we doing for our service project that will make our world a much happier place?
4. Read: Let’s play a little game. What word would you say is missing in the title of this very popular nursery rhyme Mary had a little…? If you said lamb you are right! Did you know that there really was a Mary (Mary Sawyer?) Did you know that she actually had a little lamb as a pet? Did you know that the nursery rhyme is a true story? It goes like this: One day Mary (Mary Sawyer) took her pet lamb to school because her brother told her to. What happen was later written down as this rhyme. The house where the real Mary (Sawyer) lived was destroyed by fire (August 12, 2007). Today in Sterling, Massachusetts you will see a statue representing Mary's Little Lamb. It stands in the center of the town. The rhyme goes like this:
   
   Mary had a little lamb,
   Its fleece was white as snow.
   And everywhere that Mary went,
   The lamb was sure to go.
   It followed her to school one day,
   That was against the rules;
   It made the children laugh and play,
   To see a lamb at school.
   And so the teacher turned it out,
   But still it lingered near;
   And waited patiently about
   Till Mary did appear.
   Why does the lamb love Mary so?
   The eager children cry;
   Why, Mary loves the lamb you know,
   The teacher did reply.
   
   Discuss: Why did the teacher put Mary’s lamb outside the school? What rule do you think the teacher had about bringing pets to school? Why is it important to have rules? What did the lamb do that made the children think the lamb loved Mary? What did the teacher say was the reason the lamb loved Mary so? During our service project how are we trying to promote love, friendship, loyalty, and caring? In what ways might it be true that “… to have a friend you must be one”
5. Read: The first box of Crayola crayons was made over 100 years ago. It had only eight colors. The colors were black, brown, blue, green, orange, red, violet, and yellow. Later new colors were added. Soon the box contained 48 different colors. Still later 16 new colors were added. A few years went by and sixteen new colors were added. The total number of crayons in a box of Crayola crayons was now up to 80. Soon another 16 additional new colors were added. This made the largest box of Crayola crayons contain 96 colors! The number of colors just kept growing. Now a box of Crayola crayons contains a total of 120 crayons! Even though the color of some crayons change the number of crayons in the largest box of Crayola crayons still stands at 120 colors! Andy Rooney, who now appears on CBS’s 60 Minutes TV show once said “We could all learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp. Some are pretty. Some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors… but they have learned to live together in the same box.”
   
   Discuss: The number of people in our world grows larger and larger. We have to live closer and closer together. What is Mr. Rooney telling us we need to do? How might our service project help us to learn to live together all in the same box? Why is it important to do that? How can we help others to understand that while we are all different, together we can color a beautiful picture?
6. Read: Most people like to hear birds singing. Did you know that very one of them has a special voice. The robin sings robin songs. The crow sings crow songs. The pigeon sings pigeon songs. All except for the mockingbird that is. The mocking bird mocks the songs of other birds. In other words they copy the songs that they hear. They sing the songs of other birds rather than their own song.
   
   Discuss: During our service project we will all be asked to do similar things. We may all be asked to look for ways to show kindness; to show fairness; to be helpful. Sometimes it really important to do things that everyone else is doing. But sometimes we should not be doing what everyone else is doing. What are some things we should not be doing just because everyone else is doing them? How can we be kind, fair and helpful all together as well as individually?
7. Read: We all know that there are no two snowflakes alike. They are all different. We all know that no two fingerprints are alike. They are all different too. But do you know that there are no two footprints alike either? Everyone is unique. Everyone is special.
   
   Discuss: Why is this important to remember this especially during our service project? What we do with our hands and where we go with our feet are up to us. We need to decide where to leave our fingerprints and our footprints. Why is it important that everyone become involved in leaving his or her fingerprints and footprints all over our service project?
8. Read: Have you ever seen a Where’s Waldo book? Have you ever looked for Waldo? It can be hard to find him. He is always well hidden in a picture full of hundreds of people. These people are all busy doing something. Waldo wears a red and white striped shirt and a hat. He carries a wooden walking stick and wears glasses. Sometimes he even loses things. And the book asks us to find these items in the picture as well.
   
   Discuss: During our service project there will be many of us doing many different things. What will people find us doing? Why is it important and fun to all be on the same page working together to make the world a better place?
9. Read: Tony was a turtle. He was born on a warm beach. He loved to swim. He spent most of his days in the water. He liked it there because no one bothered him. On land he was shy. He would often hide in his shell. One day a little boy found him on the beach. The little boy poked at him with a stick to try to get Tony to come out of his shell. But Tony just buried himself deeper into his shell. The little boy complained to his mother. “Why won’t he come out of his shell?” he asked.
   
   “If you’re nice to him maybe he will come out of his shell,” she replied.
   
   The little boy picked Tony up and carefully placed him near the water. Tony poked his head out of the shell. He saw the water and the little boy and smiled.
   
   Discuss: Why do you think Tony smiled at the end of this story? Why is it important to be nice to people? How are we trying to be nice to people during our service project? What are some things we can do help people come out of their shell all year long and smile?
10. Read: Josh’s mother told him that he could invite some of his friends to his birthday party. On Saturday, Josh would turn seven years old. He was excited! He told me that I would be invited to his party. I was excited. I love parties. When Saturday came we played some games. And Josh opened some presents. Then Mrs. Russell announced that we were going to eat. That’s my favorite part of a party! First she told everyone that they had a choice of hotdogs, hamburgers, or Sloppy- Joes. Next she said everyone had a choice of potato chips. There were barbecue chips, vinegar chips, vegetable chips, or regular chips. Then she said everyone could choose his or her drink. She had root beer, orange drink, lemonade, white milk or chocolate milk. When we were finished eating, Mrs. Russell announced the desert. She said that we could choose between chocolate cupcakes with white frosting, vanilla cup cakes with chocolate frosting, and yellow cup cakes with caramel frosting. And she said that we could choose between vanilla, chocolate, butter scotch, blue moon or bubblegum ice cream. Wow! What a lot of choices. I was really full by the time my mom picked me up.
    
    Discuss: Usually even if we have many choices, most of us chose the thing that we like the best. Sometimes we do like to try new things. During our service project we will have some choices to make. During our service project, what might be some things we can do that we like doing? What might be some new things we can try to do? Why is it important that whatever we decide to do during our service project that we have fun doing it?

Reflection plays a very important role in promoting student learning. The following suggested activities are ways to help students reflect on their learning after they have participated in a service event.  Choose one or more of the activities most appropriate to the service event and your students.

ACTIVITY ONE:
Have the students cut out a snowflake. Remind students that no two snowflakes are alike, so all snowflake designs will be acceptable. Have the students, using a crayon or marker; write a word on their snowflake that represents how they felt while participating in the service-learning activity.  When each student has completed placing their “feeling” word on their snowflake, have them each share their word with the class. After everyone has had an opportunity to share, place all the snowflakes on display to simulate a snowman and titled the display e.g. “Building Together”, “A Magical Snowman”, etc. Share that just as it takes lots of snow flakes to build a snowman it takes a lot of helping hands to make a service project a success.

ACTIVITY TWO:
Give the students an 8 ½” x 11”-sheet of multi-colored construction paper, a pair scissors, a glue stick/paste and a variety of old magazines and newspapers.  Tell them that they will have a designated amount of time to go through these magazines and newspapers to cut out pictures and /or words that could be used to describe their involvement in the recent event.  Once they have cut out pictures or words, tell them to place their name somewhere on the construction paper and then glue the pictures and/or words they cut out to the construction paper being careful not to cover up their name.  Display these in the classroom and if time allows have each student share the contents of his or her collage with the rest of the class.

ACTIVITY THREE:
Give each student two pop sickle sticks and a cut out of a happy face and a sad face. Have them attach/glue each face to one end of each of the pop sickle sticks.  Tell the students that they are going to be asked to “vote” on a series of questions and they can register their “vote” by holding up one of their two faces.  (NOTE: You may choose to add that the students can hold up both faces, if they are unsure of their answer/or if they feel that their answer could be both a happy face and a sad face.)

Questions:

1. How did you first feel about doing this service project?
2. How did you feel while you were doing this project?
3. How did you feel after the event was over?
4. How do you think what you did made other people feel? 
5. How do you think the ‘face of our world’ would look if no one did these things?
6. How do you think the ‘face of our world’ would look if everyone was giving and sharing?

From the student’s votes create a one-dimensional block graph on a display board or use actual building blocks to show how students responded to each of the questions.  Discuss what the graph would tell someone who might be looking at it for information about the service project.

ACTIVITY FOUR:
Arrange the class into four groups. Have one group mime some of the activities they actually did during the service project, while the rest of the class tries to guess the activities.  Have the second group mime how they felt while being involved/working in the service project, while the rest of the class tries to guess their feelings.  Have the third group mime how they would feel if they were the ones being helped/received the cards, etc., while the rest of the class tries to guess their feelings.  And finally, have the fourth group mime different activities they might be able to do the next time that would also be helpful, while the rest of the class tries to guess the activities.  Discuss with the class how well they thought they did in identifying the various mimes and what they learned from doing this activity.