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: Our teacher told us that she was on cloud nine because everyone cooperated in helping clean up our classroom. I wondered what being on cloud nine meant. I raised my hand and asked our teacher, “What did you mean when you said you were on cloud nine?” She said that on cloud nine was an expression. Scientists call clouds that are closest to the earth Cloud One. The next closest to the earth they call Cloud Two, etc. They call clouds that are way up high and farthest from the earth Cloud Nine. “So when someone says they are on cloud nine it usually means they are very, very happy. They are up. They are satisfied. They are feeling at the top of the world.”
   
   Discuss:  Why do you think adults like it when kids cooperate? How can our service event help put us be on cloud nine? Do you think that what we do during our service event will help others be on cloud nine, too?
   
    
2. Read: Do you know what geese look like? If you said they are very big birds, you are right! Some geese fly to warmer places in the winter. When they fly, they fly in a special pattern. It looks like the letter “V”. There is always one goose that flies at the tip of the “V”. This goose is called the leader. When that goose gets tired, it goes to the back of the “V”. Then another goose becomes the leader. Some people think that geese “honk” while flying to encourage the others to keep up. Did you know a goose can get sick? When it does it has to leave the group. When that happens,  two other geese leave the “V” and stay with the sick bird on the ground until it is well enough to fly again  When the sick goose is well enough to fly, the three geese start their own V” pattern and continue on their way to their winter home.
   
   Discuss:  How can we be like the geese when we are working together during our service event?  Why is every goose important in the “V”? Why is every one of us important to the success of our service event? What are some things that we can do to encourage our classmates to help?
   http://ched.washk12.org/The_Goose_Story.html
   
    
3. Read: “Finish cleaning your room and then you can go out to play.” Have you ever heard your parents say something like this to you? Have you ever thought that you’d rather play first and then clean your room instead?
   
   Discuss: There is a saying “Work first, play later”. Why do you think this might be a good order in which to do things? During our service event we will have work to do. We may also have plans to play on that day. Why is it important that everyone who can works first and plays later?
   
    
4. Read: When you make a promise to someone you are telling that person what you will or will not do. Promises are meant to be kept. When promises are not kept things don’t go as planned. When Logan said he’d come to Justine’s party. He made a promise. When Logan didn’t go, he broke that promise. Jonathan told his brother that they would play catch after dinner. Jonathan didn’t play with his brother.  He broke his promise. When Mr. Arens told his daughter that they would go to the baseball game on Saturday. When something came up and they didn’t go, Mr. Arens broke his promise. Everyone feels sad when promises are broken.
   
   Discuss: What promises are we making for our service event? Why is it important that we keep these promises?
   
    
5. Read: Can you bounce a ball? It’s not as easy as it looks. Our gym teacher told us it takes hand-eye coordination. That means the hand and eyes have to work together in order to bounce as well as catch a ball. They have to cooperate. The hands have to do what the eyes see. The eyes have to see what the hand is doing. They take turns. The faster you bounce a ball the faster they have to take turns. When we get really good at bouncing and catching a ball, we don’t even have to think about it anymore. Bouncing and catching a ball comes naturally.
   
   Discuss: During our service event, our hands have to be able to do what our eyes see as needing to be done. Our hands and eyes need to cooperate. Why is it important to cooperate with our classmates during our service event? Do you think our service event will eventually help us help others naturally?
   
    
6. Read: Do you know that some animals sleep all winter? Scientists call this hibernation. Hibernation is a state of sleep. One animal that is known to hibernate all winter is the bear. When a bear hibernates it goes to sleep for a long time. While it’s sleeping its body temperature grows cooler. It breathes slower. Its heart pumps slower. Just like us, when we are sleeping, the bear is saving up energy. Hibernation is a time when not much gets done. It is a time of rest. After a while even our computers will hibernate, meaning the screen will go blank as the computer “rests”.
   
   Discuss: Why might some students choose to go into hibernation during our service event? What can we do to wake them up to what needs to be done? Do you think it’s possible to have more energy after working than after sleeping? How so/Why not?
   
    
7. Read: Eric did not like Terrance very well. One day Terrance pushed him down. He said it was an accident but Eric was not so sure. Eric got a big bruise on his knee and tore a small hole in his jeans. After that they didn’t play together unless they had to. When their teacher assigned the teams to work together on their service event, guess who wound up on the same team. Yes, Eric and Terrance! That night Eric complained to his mother about the team assignments. “Maybe you’ll be surprised,” she said hoping to offer a little encouragement. “Right!” Eric thought to himself. When the day for the event came, Eric and Terrance started working together as far apart as they could. When Eric tried to move a heavy piece of discarded metal, he grunted. Hearing Eric grunt Terrance walked over to Eric to offer some help. As the boys began pushing the heavy object they both started grunting. It wasn’t long before they were laughing. They soon wound up on the ground laughing so hard that the teacher had to come over and see what was going on. After they brushed themselves off they got back to work. This time they worked a lot closer to each other so they could talk.
   
   Discuss: Do you think Eric finally realized what his mother meant when she said “Maybe you’ll be surprised”? Is it okay to laugh and have fun while working during our service event? Why might it be a good thing to not always be assigned to the same team as our really good friends are?
   
    
8. Read: Close your eyes and picture in your mind where you live. Look at the things on the wall. On the table. On the floor. In the closet. Do you see things that could be done to make where you live look better? Still with your eyes closed take a walk outside where you live. What do you see in the yard? On or near the sidewalk or driveway?  In the vacant lot next door? In the park down the street? Do you see things that could be done there to make them look better? And finally, with your eyes still closed take a walk around our classroom and our school. What do you see here that could be done to make our room and our school look and be better? Open your eyes.
   
   Discuss: I think every one of us pictured something in each of the areas we visited in our mind that could be done to help make that area look and be better. In what ways might our service event help make things look and be better? Will we be able to do everything that needs to be done? If not, why is it still important to at least do something?
   
    
9. Read: How do you know you can’t make the soccer team?  How do you know you can’t catch a pass? How do you know you can’t paint a picture? How do you know you can’t write a story? How do you know you can’t go one day without watching TV? How do you know you can’t sing? How do you know you can’t be someone’s friend? How do you know you are not good in math? How do you know you can’t get all A’s and B’s on your report card? How do you know that you can’t play a musically instrument? How do you know these things (pause) …. without having tried them or keep trying them?
   
   Discuss: How do we know that we can’t raise some money from our service event...unless we try it? Why is it important to try something before we say that we can’t do it? How can we convince our friends and ourselves that trying something helps us know what we can and cannot do, at that point in time? How might ‘keep on trying’ be a good approach to use during our service event as well as in other challenges in our life?
   
    
10. Read:  Happy New Year! Happy New Year! When clocks all around the world strike midnight on the last day of each year this is what people say to each other. Sometimes these same people will wear silly hats. Sometime they even blow on silly noise makers. Everyone seems to be happy that a new year is starting. Even though nobody knows what will happen to them in this New Year they still hope for the best New Year ever.
    
    Discuss: We often do things not knowing what will happen. We might say “Hi” to a new student. But we don’t know if that student will be our friend or not. Sometimes we do things and we have a pretty good idea what will happen. We might reach into the cookie jar before dinner and if mom catches us…. While we know what we will be doing during our service event, do we know what will happen as a result of our doing it? Do we hope that certain things will happen? Can we still be happy and have fun during our service event even though we don’t know how everything will turn out? How is helping to make a difference like the start of a New Year?