Students choose a service project to carry out related to homelessness.

Anticipatory Set:

Draw a picture of a home and ask the students what it is. Ask them why homes are important? Do we need them? Why? Then show a magazine cutout picture of a home and ask if everyone around the world lives in a home that looks like that. Allow the class to brainstorm what they already know about homes. Are all of them the same?

• Display the world map and locate where we live on the map, marking it with a pushpin.
  
  
• Tell the students that they are going to hear a story that describes the types of homes that people live in all over the world.
  
  
• Read the story Houses and Homes by Ann Morris, stopping at appropriate times to mark the spots on the world map that are described in the story.
  
  
• Discuss the different types of houses. Why are homes different? (money, climate, resources)
  
  
• Make a Venn diagram with the class to compare and contrast their homes with one of the homes (of their choice) from the book.
  
  
• Point out that homes within a community are often similar to each other. They should not feel sorry for people who have different styles of homes, but recognize that the environment and needs (and expectations) are different in different communities.
  
  
• Discuss what parts of homes are needs and what parts are wants. Lead the students to recognize that shelter is a need, but things like carpet, paintings, and fancy furniture are wants. Discuss the important things that are going on in all homes (talking, sleeping, eating/cooking, caring).

Day Two:

• Read Someplace to Go by Maria Testa. In this story about a homeless boy, the students may recognize that a house is not just a shelter, but a place where they feel safe and loved. A house is a place where you feel connected to family and the community. Encourage the students to respond to this text and each other about the value of a house—how people benefit from having a house.
  
  
• Write down the things they name in their discussion that they get from having a home (safety, warmth, rules, a place to go, love, etc.). Save this list for the following day.
  
  
• Give students construction paper for designing a home. Tell the students to label the house with some of the benefits of houses (warmth, shelter, love, family, etc.). Attach a sheet of lined paper to the back of the home with staples along the top or left side. Students cut the writing paper so it is the same shape as the home. They write on the paper one sentence starting with "A home is a place where . . ." Display the completed homes.

Day Three:

• Remind the students of the book read in Day Two about the homeless boy who didn’t have anywhere to go. Refer back the list you made from their discussion about the value of having a home.
  
  
• Ask the students whether people in the community have a responsibility to each other. How do they feel about the boy in the story not having a place to go? What would they do if they knew the boy?
  
  
• Review the definition of philanthropy as the giving of one’s time, talent and/or treasure for the sake of another or for the common good. Help the students choose one feasible philanthropic activity they can do from their list.
  
  
• Help the students make and carry out a plan for a philanthropic activity related to homelessness. This may include activities such as donating blankets to a homeless shelter or volunteering as a class at a clothing distribution site or soup kitchen. Have students keep journals and draw pictures of the project. Make a class book documenting the service project.

• Morris, Ann. Houses and Homes. HarperTrophy, 1995. ISBN: 0688135781
  
  
• Testa, Maria. Someplace to Go. Albert Whitman & Company, 1996. ISBN: 0807575240