Learning to Give, Philanthropy education resources that teach giving and civic engagement

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Talking Trees (2nd Grade)

Lesson 1:

From Unit Talking Trees (2nd Grade)

Lesson

Handouts

Academic Standards

Philanthropy Framework

Kindergarten-2nd Grade

Subjects:

Language Arts, Library / Technology and Social Studies

Key Words/Concepts click to view

ART:	Theater: Perform; Visual Arts: Create/Communicate
ELA:	Listening; Response to Text/Others; Voice
PHIL:	4 lesson genOn; Activism; Common Good; Environmental Stewardship; Sensitivity
SCI:	Plants
SOC:	Environment

Focus Question(s):

What is each person's responsibility for environmental stewardship?

NOTE: Prior to this lesson, use the Blue Sky Activity in which students envision a better world. If you already have a Blue Sky display, revisit it before beginning this lesson.

Purpose:

In this lesson, students learn about the interconnectedness of nature and the impact of people on the environment. Students are motivated by literature to teach others the importance of trees in our ecosystem. In an optional Extension of the lesson, they design and make posters with a “Save the Trees” message.

Duration:

One Forty-Five-Minute Class Period (Plus time to work on posters)

Objectives:

The learner will:

identify and describe the interconnectedness of nature.

recognize the importance of environmentalism and his/her role in the effort.

design and create a poster communicating his/her feelings about trees.

communicate through body movement the imagined “feelings” of trees.

Service Experience:

Although this lesson contains a service project example, decisions about service plans and implementation should be made by students, as age appropriate.

Put students in small groups in order to make “Save our Trees” posters. Tell them the posters should communicate the importance of trees, have a title or slogan that grabs attention, and include a drawing. After students present the finished posters in front of the class, share them with others in the school and display around the school.

Materials:

Book: The Tree by Dana Lyons
Poster boards (one per pair or small group)
Markers

Instructional Procedure(s):

Anticipatory Set:

Read “The Story of the Tree” found at the back of the book, The Tree, and ask what the children think about that story. Ask them what they think might be their song if they were a tree. Encourage them to use their imagination and think about a tree having feelings. Ask the children what they think a tree would say if it could talk. Then have the children close their eyes while you read the book through one time (don’t show the pictures). After reading, discuss the feelings of the trees.

Read the story to them again, but this time, show the beautiful illustrations of this book. Discuss how the pictures make them feel. Compare and contrast the feelings of children with those of a tree.

Ask the following questions to lead a discussion: Is it important to take care of our trees? Why? What can we (as children) do to protect our trees?

Explain to the students that taking care of our natural resources, in this case trees, is called stewardship.

Brainstorm uses of wood with the students. How could we cut down on wood usage? If we choose to take action for the trees, are we acting as philanthropists? (Review the meaning of philanthropy.) Does this book and discussion prompt any ideas (or motivate anyone) for a community project that based on being good stewards of plants or trees?

Optional Extension - Day Two Instructional Procedures:

Native Americans say that the trees have songs and the tree in this book has a song. Tell the students that they are going to speak like the trees without using words. They have to imagine they are trees and they are going to communicate a “sentence” using their bodies and facial expressions. Discuss body language and how you can tell how people are feeling even when they don’t use words.

Give students some time (in small groups or in pairs) to come up with a way to express a thought for the trees using only body language and facial expressions. They will present their sentences to the whole class using their bodies as a tool. Have them walk through the beginning, middle and end of the sentence.

The other students can guess the meaning of the “sentence.” Discuss what happened in their sentences and how it made them feel.

Put students in small groups in order to make “Save our Trees” posters. Tell them the posters should communicate the importance of trees, have a title or slogan that grabs attention, and include a drawing. After students present the finished posters in front of the class, hang them up around the school.

Learning Link(s): (click to view)

Have an idea for a Learning Link?

Submit your idea here.

If your Link is accepted for publication on the Web site you will be credited with your name, school, and city.

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:The bald eagle is the National Emblem of the United States. You can see this emblem on money. It’s also on other really important papers. The bald eagle is a very beautiful bird. It was on the endangered species list. This list tells everyone which animals, birds and plants are in danger of disappearing from our earth. Because people were not careful the number of bald eagles was getting smaller and smaller. Animals, birds and plants on the endangered species list are protected. This means that people cannot hurt, collect, disturb, or kill them. On June 28, 2007 the bald eagle was taken off the endangered species list. That was possible because the number of eagles has really increased. But to be sure that they won’t have to be put back on the endangered species list, laws were passed that still protect them

DISCUSS: Why is it important to keep animals from disappearing from our planet? What do you think happened that allowed the bald eagle to be taken off the endangered list? How is our Earth Day event also a way of helping to protect the animals, birds, and plants in our environment?

http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3746724

2. READ: Ricardo and Estes were very good friends. They did many things together. They both love to ride their bikes and rollerblade. They both liked to play soccer and baseball. Art was their favorite subject. Their families said that these two were inseparable. This means that they always seemed to be doing thing together. When it came time for the students in their class to choose a partner to work with during their Earth Day event, everybody knew that Ricardo and Estes would choose to work together. After the partners were selected, Annette was the only one without a partner. The teacher was about to assign her to one of the groups when Ricardo looked over at Estes. He gave him their secret sign. Estes raised his hand and volunteered to have Annette join their team. Everyone was a little surprised.

DISCUSS: Why do you think Ricardo and Estes might have wanted Annette to join their team? Why is it important that everyone be encouraged and allowed to participate in our Earth Day event?

3. READ: Grace’s class decided to pick up trash in the vacant lot next to their school for their Earth Day Project. When the day came everyone went to work. There were little things that could be picked up easily. But there were also some big things too. These needed to get to the curb so the city workers could come and pick them up. Things like a tire on a wheel, heavy boxes filled with old and unused paint, pails of dried cement, a bathroom sink and stool, not to mention a refrigerator. Without even having to be told how to go about moving these items, students came over one-by-one to help. Soon two kids were rolling the tire on its wheel to the curb. Three kids dragged the heavy boxes. Three more carried the pails of dried cement. Four more tugged away at the bathroom sink and stool. But the most fun came while moving the refrigerator. All the students in the class stopped what they were doing and came over to help. They worked hard, laughed and giggled a lot as they push and pulled the big refrigerator to the curb. When it finally made it to the curb the entire class gave a cheer and high-fived each other!

DISCUSS: What these kids were doing is called cooperation. How these kids were doing it is called teamwork. Why might cooperation and teamwork be important for the success of our Earth Day event?

4. READ: Most people in the world make New Year’s resolutions. On the very last day of the year, December 31, most people make a promise to themselves. That promise is to do something during the New Year that they might not have done for awhile, if at all. Usually resolutions are about changing something in their life. Get a new job. Quite smoking. Lose weight. Be kinder to others. The resolution made by more people than any other resolution is to spend more time with family and friends. That is a very good resolution. But did you know that of the top ten New Year resolutions, not one of them is about taking better care of our Earth? That is not a good thing.

DISCUSS: Why do you think taking care of our Earth is not one of the top ten resolutions people make for the New Year? What promises have we made to ourselves and each other in planning our Earth Day event? Why is taking care of our Earth a good resolution to make?

5. READ: While eating lunch one day, Jack noticed that there was a lot of trash in the trash cans. Students had thrown away many things that he knew could be recycled, like plastic bags, paper bags, aluminum cans, juice boxes and much more. Jack was amazed at how much trash could be thrown away just at lunch. He wondered why the school didn’t have a recycling program.

His teacher had just read the class a book titled, Just a Dream. It was about a boy whose friend, Rose, got a small tree for her birthday. Walter thought a tree was a useless gift. He thought people should get computers and electronic games for their birthdays, not trees. His friend told him about pollution and how the Earth needs trees and other plants to make oxygen for us to breathe. She also told him about all of the trash that is thrown away that could be reused. When Walter went to sleep that night he had some very disturbing dreams about the world and pollution. The world in his dream was filled with trash. It was a real mess. When Walter woke up he realized that he had just had a bad dream. He realized that his friend was right. It was up to him to help do something. He decided to help his friend, recycle, reuse, and reduce trash as much as he could.

Jack asked his teacher if his class could start a recycling program at his school.

DISCUSS: What do you think led Jack to ask his teacher if the class might start a recycling program in their school?Whose responsibility is it to keep the earth clean? How is our Earth Day event answering that question?

VanAllsburg, Chris. Just a Dream. Houghton Mifflin, 1990. ISBN: 9780395533086

6. READ: We had just finished one of our Earth Day projects. We picked up the trash in our school’s large courtyard. I felt pretty proud. The courtyard looked really neat and clean. Walking back into school, I noticed one of the older students heading toward the courtyard. I sneaked a peek. I wanted to see if he’d notice how nice it looked. What I saw made me both angry and sad. Without even looking around, he tossed a candy wrapper on the ground and walked away. “Why?” I asked myself. “Why even try to make things look nice if people are going to mess things up again anyway?”

DISCUSS: Have you ever felt the way the person telling this story did? Do you think someone could mess up our Earth Day Project? Why is it important to do what we plan to do anyway?

7. READ: Amber’s class agreed to clean up the area in front of their school. They all felt it would look better. They had a lot of weeds to pull. While they were working, Amber noticed that Cody was pulling up some flowers by mistake. At first, she was angry at him for goofing around. Then she wondered if Cody didn’t know which plants were flowers and which were weeds. Because she often helped her uncle in his greenhouse, Amber knew flowers from weeds. She asked Cody if she could help. Cody seemed relieved to know what to do. They worked side by side after that.

DISCUSS: How do you think Cody felt after Amber helped him? Why is it important to help each other during our Earth Day project?

8. READ: Ian usually went along with what his friends were doing. Sometimes it worked out okay. Sometimes he wasn’t sure it was right. One day he and Jared were throwing stones at squirrels in his yard. His mother called out for him to stop. Later that night at the dinner table, Ian’s mother asked him, “Why were you throwing stones at the squirrels?”

“Jared told me to!” Ian said.

“Do you think it is kind to throw stones at animals? What if someone threw stones at our dog? How would you feel about that?” his mother asked.

Ian hung his head. “I’d tell them to stop doing that.”

“Maybe the next time you see one of your friends doing something you know is wrong, you should let them know how you feel.” Mom said.

DISCUSS: Our Earth Day project is about taking care of our environment. What can we do if we see someone hurting our environment? Why is important to set a good example?

9. READ: It was JJ’s birthday. His parents bought a piñata and filled it with candy. Everyone at the party tried to break the piñata. Pam finally broke it. Candy fell everywhere in the grass. All the guests ran to pick up lots of candy. JJ’s mother told everyone to put their candy wrappers and pieces of the broken piñata in the wastebasket. “If we make a mess, we need to help make things nice again,” she said. “That way it’s fun for everyone.”

DISCUSS: Why is it important to clean up after we make a mess? Why would doing this be fun for everyone? What are we doing for Earth Day that will remind people to make things nice again?

10. READ: Being clean is important. A bar of soap and warm water can wash away a lot of dirt and germs. When we’re clean we look and feel better too. Did you know that there are ways we can help clean around our home, school, and neighborhood? We can pull weeds and mow lawns. We can plant flowers and sweep sidewalks. We can rake leaves and pick up trash. These are just a few of the things we can do.

DISCUSS: Why is having a clean environment so important? What are we doing during our Earth Dayproject to help clean up our environment? How do you think our service project will help our earth look and feel better too?

Reflection: (click to view)

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 event 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:

How did you first feel about doing this event?

How did you feel while you were doing this event?

How did you feel after the event was over?

How do you think what you did made other people feel?

How do you think the ‘face of our world’ would look if no one did these things?

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 event.

ACTIVITY FOUR:
Arrange the class into four groups. Have one group mime some of the activities they actually did during the event, 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 event, 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.