- 50 minutes
- Grades 2-5
Class Session #10: Civic Engagement as Generosity
OVERVIEW
01. Ecological, Intergenerational Generosity! - 10 MIN
- Highlight: Generosity can be found across cultures, generations, and ecologies! Invite students to observe how the Bonobo monkeys are generous.
- Engage–Read: Bonobos by Grace Hansen
- Explore–Discuss:
- How are the Bonobos generous? [Sharing, welcoming strangers into group]
02. Intergenerational Generosity in Ecology! - 30 MIN
- Highlight: Generosity is related to the words “generation” and “regeneration.” The life cycle is an example of ecological generosity!
- Explore–Read: Would You Rather Be a Polliwog?by Bonnie Worth (The Cat in the Hat Series). Invite students to note the different life cycles presented in the story.
- Explain–Discuss:
- What life cycles did you hear in the story? [frog, turtle, etc.]
- How is a life cycle an example of generosity in our ecological systems, or in nature?
- Elaborate: Create a mobile for the life cycle of a frog.
03. Civic Engagement - 10 MIN
- Highlight: Connect ecological generosity and civic engagement.
- Engage–Ask: Ask students what generosity lessons ecology, or nature, has to offer us (humans) about how to develop generous citizens and civic spaces.
- Explore–Discuss: Discuss together how libraries create generous civic spaces, and how students’ public book reading may be seen as an act of civic generosity.
- Evaluate–Homework: Finish storybooks and practice reading aloud