These "LEAGUE Learning Links” provide ten quick and easy 5-minute mini-lessons to help promote The LEAGUE’s vision and scheduled events in your classroom. You can choose from among these mini-lessons and use as many of them as you would like 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 ones, time, talents, and treasures for the common good) and to promote those philanthropic acts that have been identified as supporting The LEAGUE events. These mini-lessons will also help ensure a deeper understanding of character traits, civic engagement, and promote student leadership. It is recommended that students be encouraged to play as much of a role as possible and appropriate in presenting these lessons to their classmates.

1. Read: Have you ever heard of an Earth philanthropist? We all know what the Earth is.  Do you recall what a philanthropist is? A philanthropist is someone who gives of his or her time, talent and/or treasures for the common good. A philanthropist may be someone who gives money to help people. A philanthropist may be someone who gives money to help the environment. A philanthropist may also be someone who gives of his or her time and talent to help people and the environment.
   
   Discuss: If someone were an Earth philanthropist what might be some of the things he or she does? In what ways is being an Earth Philanthropist promoting the common good? In what ways is helping the environment also helping people? As we participate in our Earth Day event, could we be called Earth philanthropists? Why or why not?
   
   
2. Read: Most plants and animals have natural predators. A natural predator is someone or something that eats another living plant or animal as a part of its natural diet. In fact, natural predators are important. They help keep the balance needed for life to exist on this planet. We can look at a snake eating a whole mouse and exclaim, “That’s gross!” but that is the natural thing for a snake to do. There is one predator who constantly likes to upset the balance of nature. We are that predator. As we build our buildings, we often don’t think about the consequences of destroying natural habitats. We are careless with our fires which destroy acres and acres of forest land each year. We tend to eat far more than we need to live. We waste and pollute our water. We throw out more trash than our landfills can hold. We tend to use more natural resources than we need to. We often are not “natural predators” helping to keep the balance in nature. We are very “unnatural predators”!
   
   Discuss: Why is it not okay to be an “unnatural predator”? Why is balance in nature so important? In what ways is our Earth Day event helping bring balance into nature? What are some ways we can be more like “natural predators”?
   
   
3. Read: We all know that water is important to life on Earth. It helps us grow our food. It keeps us clean, provides us with power, and controls our fires. All living things need water to stay alive! But we have a problem! It is true that water can naturally clean itself. In science class we learned that this process is part of the “water cycle”. But, we are using our planet’s fresh water faster than it can naturally be recycled. Even though we build waste and water treatment plants to help the water cycle, these facilities are falling behind. They can’t keep up with human demands for fresh water. What is one answer to this problem?  We must conserve our water. We need to use our water wisely. We need to stop wasting our fresh water.
   
   Discuss: How will conserving our fresh water help the environment and the people, plants and animals that live in it? How will conserving our fresh water help save energy?  How will conserving our fresh water help save money? What are some of the ways we can use water wisely in our own homes, in our schools and in our community? In what ways is our Earth Day event helping the environment? Why is helping our environment in this way a wise use of our time?
   www.jea.com/community/education/efficiency/wisely/save.html
   
   
4. Read: All space mission scientists agree that seeing the Earth from far away is the rarest view anyone could ever have. Many astronauts, who have seen this view, admit that they have had tears come to their eyes because of its beauty. One astronaut is quoted as saying, “It gives us a whole new appreciation for that blue and green marble we call home.”
   
   Discuss: Why would an astronaut call our Earth a “blue and green marble”? What are some things we can do to keep our Earth beautiful? How will our Earth Day event show that we appreciate this blue and green marble we call home.”?
   
   
5. Read: Former President of the United States, Bill Clinton wrote a book. The title of his book is Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World. In the book he shares stories about "private citizens doing public good." One of the people he writes about is McKenzie Steiner of Delmar, California. McKenzie turned her recent birthday party into a beach cleanup. She admits she enjoyed collecting garbage during a field trip with her parents. She decided a “pick-up-trash party” was what she wanted for her birthday. When asked why she would do such a thing, she said she was concern that the animals might be killed by litter. She also said that picking up trash makes her feel happy.
   
   Discuss: What did McKenzie “give up” (opportunity cost) in choosing to pick up trash for her birthday party? What do you think motivated her to do this? Our Earth Day event will be a time when we try to do something good for our environment. How will we be like “private citizens doing public good?  In what ways might being involved in our Earth Day event make us feel happy?
   
   
6. Read: A wire coat hanger is nothing special. But do you know that each year over 3.5 billion of them end up in landfills? The average wire coat hanger measures 18 inches from end-to-end. If we were to put 3.5 billion coat hangers end-to-end they would wrap around the entire world almost 40 times! That’s a lot of coat hangers! One company is now making an eco-coat hanger. This coat hanger is made of 100% recycled paper. Maybe we won’t have so many wire coat hangers to throw away in the future.
   
   Discuss: Why do you think people look at their wire coat hangers and think nothing of throwing them into the trash? Can you think of other items that we might toss into our trash without thinking about what happens to them? Why is recycling important? Why it is important to make 100% recycled products whenever possible? How is our Earth Day event helping our school, community, and our Earth?
   
   
7. Read:  Have you ever looked at a light through the end of a kaleidoscope? A kaleidoscope looks like a tube. At one there is a small hole to look through. At the other end is a piece of glass or see-through plastic. Inside the tube contains loose bits of colored glass or plastic. Light entering one end of the tube reflects through these colored materials. Two mirrors help create beautiful color patterns. Looking through the small hole at one end and moving the tube even the slightest little bit rearranges the colored materials. Doing so makes many more beautiful new and different patterns. The variety of patterns is almost endless!
   
   Discuss: Kaleidoscopes are fun to play with. They create so many beautiful colors and shapes. Our environment is like a kaleidoscope. It too contains many beautiful colors and shapes. With just a little effort on our part we can keep it beautiful. We can also make it even more beautiful. As we participate in our Earth Day event, how are we helping make our world even more beautiful?  Why might the job of keeping our world beautiful be an endless one?
   
   
8. Read: Ranger Rick is a nature magazine. It is for kids like us. The magazine has many beautiful pictures. There are some nice stories of animals in their natural habitats to read. It also contains games, riddles, news, poetry, and contests. "Ranger Rick's Adventures" is a very popular comic strip in the magazine. It’s about a raccoon named Ranger Rick, and his friends from Deep Green Wood. They go off into the world to investigate. They report threats to wildlife and environmental problems. They point out what kids, like us, and others can do to help conserve wildlife and keep our environment safe and beautiful.
   
   Discuss: What do you think Ranger Rick would say about our plans for our Earth Day event? What do you think he would say to encourage us to get involved? During our Earth Day event what are we going to do to help make our event successful?
   
   
9. Read: The hot air balloon is the oldest human-carrying flying machine. It was first invented in France over 200 years ago. At first hot air balloons had many purposes. Today they are used mostly for recreation.  People who have ridden in a hot air balloon say that it's hard to describe the feeling. They say they feel weightless as they drift and float along in the air. On a clear day, a balloon rider gets a bird’s eye view of the Earth. (seeing objects from above the Earth, like a bird looking down) There is another view known as a worm's-eye view. It is a view of an object from below, like a worm looking up.
   
   Discuss: As we plan our Earth Day event, how would taking a bird’s eye view of our school and community be helpful? How would taking a worm’s eye view of our school and community be helpful? How can a “person’s eye view” also be helpful?
   
   
10. Read:  Mascots are very popular today. Most schools and teams have them. Even some businesses have them. Mascots help get people excited. Most mascots cheer side-by-side with the cheerleaders to get the crowd “into the game”. Mascots are usually not allowed to speak-or growl. They use only their motions to communicate with the crowds. It takes a lot of work to be a good mascot. Not only are most mascots very active, they can also be very funny. They get people to laugh and have a good time while cheering for their team. While mascots certainly won’t score touchdowns, hit home runs, or put in winning baskets, they have a very important role to play in each game.
    
    Discuss: How can we play like a team during our Earth Day event? In what ways can we be like a mascot for our team? Why is it important to have a “good time” while working with our team in the event? Why is every role important to the success of our event? How can encourage others to join us without “growling” at them?

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 each student write a paragraph about his or her personal LEAGUE Event experience using one of these prompt analogies:

This LEAGUE Event was:
Like baking a cake, because…
Like hugging a friend, because…a
Like reading a good book, because…
Like running a race, because
Like planting a flower, because

ACTIVITY TWO: Holding one end of the yarn, toss the yarn ball to a student and have that student use one word or phrase, describe/summarize his or her personal LEAGUE Event experience.  After the student has responded, have that student hold the end of the yarn and toss the yarn ball to another student--continuing to unravel the yarn ball-- repeating the process until everyone is part of the web created by the yarn.  Passing is permissible. (Note: Point out to the students that the web represents the interconnectedness of people and their experiences.)  If time permits, have the students “retrace” the yarn ball tosses.  This time the student with the yarn ball rewinds the yarn onto the ball while sharing what he or she feels might be the effects of the event or what more they would like to do before tossing it back to the student who originally tossed it to him/her. Continue this process until the yarn ball is back in your hands.

ACTIVITY THREE: Collect a bag of inexpensive small toys.  (These could be borrowed from a Kindergarten classroom.)  Place these toys in a large brown bag.  Assign students to groups of four or five.  Have a member of each group select from the bag, without looking at any of the toys.  Have each group explain to the other groups how this toy might represent what they did, how they felt, or suggest in some way what impact they might have had as a result of the event project. Allow the groups time to meet and brainstorm together for a few minutes before making their presentation.

ACTIVITY FOUR: Have the class determine how much money they “saved” others by offering their volunteer service(s) or donations during this Event. To calculate the volunteer services amount, have each student identify the number of hours they were involved in the activity and multiply this number by the minimum wage for your State. (The Federal minimum wage can also be used which is approximately $7.00 per hour.) To calculate the donations amount, have the students count the total amount of money raised during the fundraiser. Celebrate the grand total savings to others that the students have provided during this Event.