Learning to Give, Curriculum Division of The LEAGUE
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Unit Overview:
This philanthropy and arts unit ties in with a teacher's existing unit about plants and the life cycle. Use this unit as a supplement or as a stand-alone review about the needs of plants, parts of the plant, and the life cycle of a plant. Before starting this unit, plant flower seeds (marigolds are ideal) enough in advance that they are already flowering. The students will be exposed to music, visual arts, pre-writing and writing activities. Students will participate in a service-learning project involving the beautification of the community. Students will collaboratively decide on a location to plant flowers to further their understanding of needs and wants in the community.
Unit Purpose:
Unit Objectives:
The learners will:
- identify the basic needs and purposes of flowers (and plants).
- differentiate between wants and needs (of people).
- participate in a trust-building exercise.
- role-play the movements of flowers.
- listen to music while creating flowers with a partner.
- decide on a philanthropic act related to flowers.
- recognize the difference between private property and common resources.
- use a problem-solving model to choose a site for planting.
- plant flowers for others and attend to the needs of the flowers.
- summarize the experience and reflect on the value of philanthropy through drawing, discussing, and/or writing about three benefits of philanthropy to both the recipient and the giver.
Service Experience:
Students will plant flowers for the benefit of others. The location was determined in Lesson Two: Friendly Flowers, based on a consensus using the following criteria: permission from recipients, space for plants to grow, visibility and access to getting their needs met. Locations may include the school grounds, a community park, a retirement home, a house built by Habitat for Humanity, a homeless shelter or mission house.
Unit Assessment:
- See rubric from Lesson Three: Flowering Philanthropy.
- Teacher observation of students in discussions and cooperative activities
School/Home Connection:
- “Copy-and-Paste” Class/School Newsletter Information Insert:
Our class is learning about the importance of the arts and philanthropy in a unit called Philanthropy in Bloom. Our unit centers on the basic needs and purposes of plants, as well as people. The students will understand that although beauty is not a need, it adds purpose and joy to life. Students will discover that sharing flowers can be an act of philanthropy. They will use a problem-solving model to collaboratively choose an appropriate site for planting flowers in our community. Through reflection, students recognize the benefits of service learning to the giver as well as to the recipient.
- Interactive Parent / Student Homework:
- · Students will investigate what types of flowers they can find in their home environment. They will make sketches or a list of what they find.
- Ask the parents to take their children to a local garden, greenhouse or flower shop and have the students smell and observe the flowers closely. They could take pictures of different flowers and create a collage of flowers.
- · Students will investigate what types of flowers they can find in their home environment. They will make sketches or a list of what they find.
State Curriculum and Philanthropy Theme Frameworks:
See individual lessons for benchmark detail.
Lessons Developed and Piloted By:
Elizabeth Marsden
Grand Rapids Public Schools
Hall Elementary School
703 Shamrock St SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
Lisa Laninga
Oakridge Public Schools
Oakridge High School
5493 Hall Rd.
Muskegon, MI 49442
Sharon Mooney
North Muskegon Public Schools
North Muskegon High School
1600 Mills Ave.
Muskegon, MI 49445
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