We define community as "coming together with a common purpose" and brainstorm communities we are part of: classroom, sports team, interest and faith groups, and neighborhood. We reflect on how philanthropy and trust affect the common good of the community.
To help students understand important events in U.S. History during the time period of the setting for the novel Of Mice and Men; these include westward expansion, the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.
This lesson introduces the characteristics of fairy tales as a genre. The children explore positive and negative character traits and universal themes in the story of Cinderella. The service plan is introduced in this lesson and carried out over the next weeks.
Based on the book The Runaway Rice Cake, the group writes a familiar story from a different perspective. The moral of the story is that when the character gives generously and from the heart, the giver is also rewarded in some way.
A Dr. Seuss story tells about two groups of characters who have no self-respect or respect for others. They analyze the effects of lack of respect and identify ways to demonstrate respect in real-life situations.
There are times when a person learns that it is better not to give a generous gift at all if it will be disrespected by the receiver. There are also times a person may realize too late that there is a cost for bad behavior.
As demonstrated in these folktales, even the smallest things, when shared, can be examples of philanthropy.
Performance of the mitzvah of tzedakah is, ideally, a holistic part of life, not an activity to be performed when all others have been completed! This lesson offers a classic model of how that ideal was realized by one of our Sages, Rabbi Tanchum, and how our families might...
Fairy tales are great stories for helping young people work out complicated moral issues in a make-believe context. Found in countries all around the world, the same story plays out in different contexts. Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters is a "Cinderella" story from Africa in which kindness...
Learners read and reflect on the meaning of democracy. They discuss and explore examples of participatory democracy in history. They read quotes from Founding Fathers and relate them to philanthropy and civic engagement.