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Unpublished

Meeting Our Daily Needs
  1. Strand PHIL.I Definitions of Philanthropy
    1. Standard DP 01. Define Philanthropy
      1. Benchmark E.1 Define philanthropy as the giving and sharing of time, talent, or treasure intended for the common good.
      2. Benchmark E.3 Recognize that citizens have a responsibility for the common good as defined by democratic principles.
    2. Standard DP 02. Roles of Government, Business, and Philanthropy
      1. Benchmark E.1 Give examples of needs met by government, business, civil society, and family.
      2. Benchmark E.2 Explain the difference between wants and needs.
    3. Standard DP 04. Operational Characteristics of Nonprofit Organizations
      1. Benchmark E.1 Describe how citizens organize in response to a need.
    4. Standard DP 06. Role of Family in Philanthropy
      1. Benchmark E.2 Identify examples of families supporting giving and sharing.
  2. Strand PHIL.II Philanthropy and Civil Society
    1. Standard PCS 01. Self, citizenship, and society
      1. Benchmark E.5 Identify one local citizen who has helped the community through giving and/or service.
    2. Standard PCS 03. Philanthropy and Economics
      1. Benchmark E.13 Describe limited resources and scarcity.

This lesson introduces the concept of basic needs. Students learn about events that prevent people from getting their basic needs. They also explore how people and organizations step forward to help others get their basic needs met. Students become sensitive to the needs of others and are motivated to think about ways they can help. They are introduced to the term philanthropy.

Duration: 
PrintFive Twenty to Forty-Five Minute Class Periods
Objectives: 

The learner will:

  • identify the basic needs of all people.
  • define the term philanthropy and philanthropist.
  • identify philanthropists from his/her local community.
  • brainstorm ways to help others who don’t get their basic needs met.
  • analyze acts of philanthropy by sorting in different ways.
Materials: 
  • Chart paper or poster board
  • Cutouts or illustrations to represent the following categories of basic needs: home, food, water, clothing, hospital/medical, school
  • Tongue depressors (one per student)
  • Four-inch square pieces of paper (one for each student)
  • Strips of construction paper, about the size of the tongue depressors
  • Crayons, scissors and glue sticks
  • Six different colors of dot stickers
  • Writing paper/pencil
Home Connection: 

Interactive Parent / Student Homework: The homework assignment involves the parents in brainstorming with their children about philanthropic acts that they know about in their lives. For younger students, the parents will need to write the WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHERE and WHEN on the back of the pictures.

Bibliography: 

None for this lesson.

Instructions: 
Print

  1. Anticipatory Set:

    Show the students a picture of a dog or cat that looks like it needs a home. These can often be found in the newspaper as an advertisement from the humane society. Ask the students if they decided to take this dog home, what would the pet need? Lead the students to name its basic needs—a warm home, love and attention, food, water, walks each day or a litter box. Help them distinguish between the pet’s needs and extra things people may want for the pet such as toys and sweaters.

  2. Give each child a tongue depressor, a small square of paper, crayons, scissors and glue stick. Ask them to draw their head on the paper, cut it out and glue it to the tongue depressor. Write on the board, “What do you need to live?” Brainstorm a list of their needs and record their responses on the chart paper. Focus the discussion on basic needs. Group the responses into categories with the general headings of food, water, shelter, clothing, education and healthcare. Above each category, place a symbol or picture to represent the group.

    • Assign each category a color by placing a colored dot sticker in the column. Give each student one dot sticker of each color. As you pass out the stickers, tell them that you are giving them food, water, shelter (a warm home), clothes, education and healthcare. Tell them to put the stickers on their tongue depressor to show that they have all their needs met today.

    • Have students wave their happy, healthy stick puppets of themselves in the air to celebrate that their whole community has all their basic needs.

  3. Day Two:

  4. In preparation for today, set out colored dot stickers under each category of the basic needs chart. Put out plenty of each color except the color representing shelter. Only put out enough of these stickers for two-thirds of the class. Prepare a note and put it in a sealed envelope. The note tells that there was an earthquake last night that destroyed the homes of one-third of the community.

    • At the beginning of the lesson, pass out the strips of paper and one piece of tape to each student. Tell them to tape the strip under the face of their puppets from yesterday so it covers the tongue depressor. Invite the students to line up and get one of each color sticker so they can get all their basic needs for the day (review what the needs are).

    • Observe student reaction when they realize that they don’t have all of their needs met for the day. Begin the day’s discussion from the concerns and reactions of the students.

    • Tell the students that you have a note that explains everything. Pull the note out of the envelope and read it seriously.

    • Brainstorm with the class ways of dealing with this disaster. Record their responses on chart paper. (“You can come live at my house.” “We could all work together to help rebuild their homes.” “My Dad has a lumber yard and we could get supplies from him.” “Doesn’t the Red Cross help people who don’t have a place to live?”) Praise them on their problem-solving ingenuity and tell them that you are going to keep their good suggestions.

  5. Day Three:

  6. In preparation for today, set out colored dot stickers under each category of the basic needs chart. Put out plenty of each color except the colors representing food and shelter. Only put out enough of these stickers for half of the class. Prepare a note and put it in a sealed envelope. The note tells that the big manufacturing plant in town was shut down and half of the parents of the students in the class are now out of work. Therefore, they cannot afford food and their rent/mortgage payment so they don’t have a place to live.

    • At the beginning of the lesson, pass out the strips of paper and one piece of tape to each student. Tell them to tape the strip over the strip from yesterday. Invite the students to line up and get one of each color sticker so they can get all their basic needs for the day (review what the needs are).

    • Tell the students that you have a note that explains everything. Before opening the sealed note, ask the students why they think these needs are not being met today. Pull the note out of the envelope and read it seriously.

    • This time, break into small groups to brainstorm ways of helping these people who don’t have enough food or a place to live. After 5-10 minutes, have each group report back to the large group. The teacher records their ideas on chart paper. Ask the children if any of their ideas are similar to those they generated yesterday.

    • Praise them on their problem-solving ingenuity and tell them that you are going to keep their good suggestions.

  7. Day Four:

  8. In preparation for today, set out colored dot stickers under each category of the basic needs chart. Put out plenty of each color except the color representing water. Only put out enough of these stickers for one-third of the class. Prepare a note and put it in a sealed envelope. The note tells that because there has been little rain in the area the water table is low and the reservoirs don’t have enough supply for everyone to have water.

    • At the beginning of the lesson, pass out the strips of paper and one piece of tape to each student. Tell them to tape the strip over the strip from yesterday. Invite the students to line up and get one of each color sticker so they can get all their basic needs for the day (review what the needs are).

    • Tell the students that you have a note that explains everything. Before opening the sealed note, ask the students to predict why they think this need is not being met today. Pull the note out of the envelope and read it seriously.

    • Have the students each write one idea on a piece of paper of how to deal with this problem. Give each student a chance to share his or her idea while the teacher records the ideas on the chart paper. Ask the children if any of their ideas are similar to those they generated yesterday.

    • Write the word philanthropy and philanthropist on the board. Define philanthropy as the giving or sharing of time, talent or treasure for the common good. Display the chart papers with their ideas from the previous three days for helping the imaginary community members meet their needs. Tell the students that they were giving ideas on these charts on how to be philanthropists.

    • Talk about what it means to give time, talent or treasure. Then challenge the students to sort the help they offered on the charts into the categories of time, talent and treasure. For example, donating food to a food pantry may be sharing treasure.

    • Send home the homework tonight in which students find examples in their own community of people who give time, talent or treasure to help people get their basic needs. See Attachment One: Who Helps Others—Family Homework.

  9. Day Five:

  10. Students share their homework pictures and tell about who, what, where, why and when. The other students may ask clarifying questions of the person sharing.

    • Hang up the student pictures so they are all visible. Ask the following questions and ask the students to identify the pictures that fit in the different categories:

    1. What acts helped someone in their home?
    2. What acts helped their school?
    3. What acts helped someone or a group of people in their city?
    4. What acts helped someone or a group of people in the greater world?
    5. What acts represented a giving of time?
    6. What acts represented a giving of talent?
    7. What acts represented a giving of treasure?

  12. Students write a journal entry or illustrate a way they think that they might be able to be a philanthropist.

Assessment: 

Assess student performance in the following ways: Observe student participation in the problem-solving sessions. Evaluate the contributions, both in small groups and individual written responses for their understanding of the concepts of philanthropy. Evaluate the content of the homework pictures for accuracy in demonstrating an example of philanthropy.