The learner will:

• define philanthropy as giving time, talent, and/or treasure for the common good.
• reflect on the difference between needs and wants and the freedom of volunteers to choose how they share their time, talent, and treasure.
• recognize that philanthropy provides benefits to the giver and receiver.
• write a response to the theme of the literature selection.

Anticipatory Set:

Read Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen to the class.  Tell about a personal experience with philanthropy and ask students to share their experiences with giving and volunteering. 

• Define philanthropy as the sharing of time, talent, or treasure intended for the common good. Ask the students to identify examples of phiilanthropy in the book Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen.  Talk about why each person in the story shared his/her time, talent, or treasure.  Ask the students to think about what they would like about being the giver in these situations. (They are reflecting on the benefits to the person who gives.)
  
  
• A soup kitchen provides food for people who are in need.  Discuss the difference between wants and needs. (Wants are things we desire that are nonessential for life, such as toys, trendy clothes, or a vacation to Disneyland.  Needs are things essential to life, such as food, water, shelter, and clothes.)  Discuss whether volunteering is always associated with needs rather than wants.  Talk about how volunteering involves choice.  People give their time, talent, and treasure in areas of personal interest.  Uncle Willie loves helping in the soup kitchen to give people what they need.  Some people love working with young people to enrich their lives with nonessentials.
  
  
• Discuss the difference between selfishness and selflessness (selfishness is something done purely for ourselves; selflessness is something done purely for others).  Ask the students to identify exammples in the book and in things they have observed in their own interactions, in other books, or in other media.
  
  
• Discuss the difference between volunteering and paid labor.  Ask the students to hypothesize about whether Uncle Willie is paid for what he does.  Discuss whether volunteering is a selfless act.
  
  
• Students write a two-paragraph journal entry with the following sentence starter: If I helped in a soup kitchen, I would . . . 
  
  Students should have the freedom to answer this question in the manner they choose.  Their response will demonstrate their level of thinking about volunteering, selflessness, helpfulness, and sensitivity to others.

• DiSalvo-Ryan, DyAnne.  Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen.  HarperTrophy, 1997.  ISBN: 0688152856.