These "LEAGUE Learning Links” provide ten quick and easy 5-minute mini-lessons to help promote The LEAGUE vision and scheduled events in your classroom. You can choose from among these mini-lessons and use as many of them as you would like and in whatever order best meets your needs and the interest of your students. The purpose of these mini-lessons is to provide a deeper understanding of philanthropy (the giving of ones, time, talents, and treasures for the common good) and to promote those philanthropic acts that have been identified as supporting The LEAGUE events. These mini-lessons will also help ensure a deeper understanding of character traits, civic engagement, and promote student leadership. It is recommended that students be encouraged to play as much of a role as is possible and appropriate in presenting these lessons to their classmates.

1. Read:  April and Dakota were riding their bikes to the corner store. April’s mom had given them enough money for two ice cream cones. As they were riding, they were talking about their science assignment. Their assignment was to think of something everyone could do every day to make the Earth better. As a class, they decided to pick up trash around the school for their Earth Day event. But their assignment was to be something that everyone could do every day. They thought and thought. They just couldn’t come up with anything. While they waited for the crossing light to tell them they could safely cross the street, a car drove up. Its radio was blaring so loudly that April and Dakota could not even hear each other. Right then an idea came to both of them. Something everyone could do every day to make the environment better.
   
   Discuss: Can you guess what their idea might have been? They had talked in class about how noise pollution was a problem in the environment. They decided that everyone could do their best everyday not to add to the noise in their environment. What are some things you can think of that everyone can do everyday, besides what we plan to do as a class for our Earth Day project?
   
   
2. Read: The Bald Eagle is the National Emblem of the United States. You can see this emblem on money. It’s also on other really important papers. The Bald Eagle is a very beautiful bird. It was on the endangered species list. This list tells everyone which animals, birds and plants are in danger of disappearing from our Earth. Because people were not careful the number of bald eagles was getting smaller and smaller. Animals, birds and plants on the endangered species list are protected. This means that people cannot hurt, collect, disturb, or kill them. On June 28, 2007 the bald eagle was taken off the endangered species list. That was possible because the number of eagles has really increased. But to be sure that they won’t have to be put back on the endangered species list, laws were passed that still protect them.
   
   Discuss:  Why is it important to keep animals from disappearing from our planet? What do you think happened that allowed the bald eagle to be taken off the endangered list? How is our Earth Day event also a way of helping to protect the animals, birds, and plants in our environment
   http://content.scholastic.
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3. Read: You have probably heard of Webkinz. It involves buying a plush stuffed animal pet at a store. When you buy your pet you also get a code tag. You follow the instructions on the code tag. Using a computer your make-believe pet “comes alive”. From then on it’s like playing a game. Online, you will be able to a name your pet, even choose whether it is a girl or boy pet. You will be able to care for your pet and have fun with it. You will be able to design a room for your new pet. You will even be able to get kinzcash that you can use to buy pretend furniture and other things for your pet's room. You can find out when your pet is hungry, happy and healthy. There are many pretend fun things you can do with your Webkinz.
   
   Discuss: If you could choose an environment you would like to live in, what would the environment look like? Our Earth Day event is real. How can we make what we do during our event fun? If you could use your pretend kinzcash how would you spend it to make our Earth , safer, healthier and more beautiful  for everyone?
   
   
4. Read: Have you ever skipped rope? Have you ever played four-square? Kickball? Soccer? Tetherball? Hop-scotch? Tag? These are only some of the games that kids play during recess time in schools all over the world. At Somewhereville Elementary School, the students in Mr. Maple’s class play another game. It has many names. But the name most of the kids use is “CT: Cash for Trash” It’s a fun way to clean up the environment around their school and keep it that way. Once a month, when the students least expect it, Mr. Maple declares the day to be a “CT-Day”. That means that during their out-of-door recess or lunch hour recess on that day the students will work in teams of three to collect all the trash they can find from around their school. They put the trash in a bag that Mr. Maple gives them. When the bell rings each team brings its bags to Mr. Maple to be weighed. For every pound of trash collected the class earns a pretend $5.00. Whenever the total amount of pretend money reaches $20.00, the class has a party to celebrate!
   
   Discuss: Does this sound like a fun game to you? Why or why not? During our Earth Day event we will have some work to do. What are some ways we can make that work fun? What are some ways we can celebrate after our work is done?
   
   
5. Read: Ricardo and Estes were very good friends. They did many things together. They both love to ride their bikes and rollerblade. They both liked to play soccer and baseball.  Art was their favorite subject. Their families said that these two were inseparable. This means that they always seemed to be doing thing together. When it came time for the students in their class to choose a partner to work with during their Earth Day event, everybody knew that Ricardo and Estes would choose to work together. After the partners were selected, Annette was the only one without a partner. The teacher was about to assign her to one of the groups when Ricardo looked over at Estes. He gave him their secret sign. Estes raised his hand and volunteered to have Annette join their team. Everyone was a little surprised.
   
   Discuss:  Why do you think Ricardo and Estes might have wanted Annette to join their team? Why is it important that everyone be encouraged and allowed to participate in our Earth Day event? What do you think the old saying many hands make light work means? Could this be one reason why Ricardo and Estes volunteered to have Annette join their team?
   
   
6. Read: There was a day when the flowers went away in our town. “No one likes us,” the flowers sadly told their leader, the Great Sunflower of the West.
   
   “How do you know no one likes you?” the leader asked.
   
   “Because they don’t water us when we are thirsty. They don’t feed us when we are hungry. They even step on us when we are in their way!” the flowers cried.
   
   “I see.” said their leader. “Let’s teach them all a lesson.”
   
   The next day things began to disappear. All the flowers in the flower shop and stores were gone. Weed patches began to grow where flowers used to be. There was no honey for pancakes or muffins. No sweet smells. No pretty colors. Bees and butterflies began to disappear for lack of food. People grew grumpy and brides cried because there would be no flowers at their weddings. Things look drab and colorless. The town was in a mess.
   
   The Mayor put out a request to have the flowers return to the town. He promised them that he would do everything in his power to be sure that they were watered when they were thirsty. That they would be fed when they were hungry and protect from careless trampling. The Great Sunflower of the West told the flowers what the Mayor promised and they happily returned to their town. Things are beginning to look so much better. Everyone is happy!
   
   Discuss: Can you think of other things that could happen if all the flowers went away? What lesson do you think the people of this town learned? Why is it important to take care of our Earth everyday and not just during our Earth Day event? Why is it important that the Mayor of this town keep his promise to the flowers? Why is it important that we keep our promise to help during our Earth Day event and every day after that?
   
   
7. Read:  Grace’s class decided to pick up trash in the vacant lot next to their school for their Earth Day Project. When the day came everyone went to work. There were little things that could be picked up easily. But there were also some big things too. These needed to get to the curb so the city workers could come and pick them up. Things like a tire on a wheel, heavy boxes filled with old and unused paint, pails of dried cement, a bathroom sink and stool, not to mention a refrigerator. Without even having to be told how to go about moving these items, students came over one-by-one to help. Soon two kids were rolling the tire on its wheel to the curb. Three kids dragged the heavy boxes. Three more carried the pails of dried cement. Four more tugged away at the bathroom sink and stool. But the most fun came while moving the refrigerator. All the students in the class stopped what they were doing and came over to help. They worked hard, laughed and giggled a lot as they push and pulled the big refrigerator to the curb. When it finally made it to the curb the entire class gave a cheer and high-fived each other!
   
   Discuss: WHAT these kids were doing is called cooperation. HOW these kids were doing it is called teamwork. Why might cooperation and teamwork be important for the success of our Earth Day event?
   
   
8. Read: Most people in the world make New Year’s resolutions. On the very last day of the year, December 31, most people make a promise to themselves. That promise is to do something during the New Year that they might not have done for awhile if at all. Usually resolutions are about changing something in their life. Get a new job. Quite smoking. Lose weight. Be kinder to others. The resolution made by more people that another other resolution is to spend more time with family and friends. That is a very good resolution. But did you know that of the top ten New Year resolutions, not one of them is about taking better care of our Earth? That is not a good thing.
   
   Discuss: Why do you think taking care of our Earth is not one of the top ten resolutions people make for the New Year?
   Why do you think it is important that people promise to take better care of the Earth? What promises have we made to ourselves and each other during our Earth Day event? Why is taking care of our Earth a good resolution to make?
   
   
9. Read: An apple a day keeps the doctor away. This old saying, like most old sayings, is somewhat true. There is no guarantee that you’ll never have to go to a doctor if you eat an apple a day. But it is important that we eat some fruit and vegetables each day to be healthy. A more modern version of this saying might be washing your fruits and vegetables before you eat them each day keeps the doctor away. Many fruits and vegetables are sprayed with poisons that are meant to kill the bugs and insects that would ruin them. It’s always smart to wash fruits and vegetables before you eat them so you won’t get those poisons in your body. They can make you very sick. You may even have to go to the doctor. Sometimes the things that are good for us can be dangerous if we are not careful. Water is good for us, but water that is dirty is not. Air is good for us, but air that is filled with bad things is not. Fruits and vegetables are good for us, but those that have bad things sprayed on them are not.
   
   Discuss: By washing our fruits and vegetables before we eat them we are being safe. What are some things we could do during our Earth Day event to make our water and air safer to drink and breathe?
   
   
10. Read: While eating lunch one day, Jack noticed that there was a lot of trash in the trash cans. Students had thrown away many things that he knew could be recycled, like plastic bags, paper bags, aluminum cans, juice boxes and much more. Jack was amazed at how much trash could be thrown away just at lunch. He wondered why the school didn’t have a recycling program.
    
    His teacher had just read the class a book titled, Just a Dream. It was about a boy whose friend, Rose, got a small tree for her birthday. Walter thought a tree was a useless gift. He thought people should get computers and electronic games for their birthdays, not trees. His friend told him about pollution and how the Earth needs trees and other plants to make oxygen for us to breathe. She also told him about all of the trash that is thrown away that could be reused. When Walter went to sleep that night he had some very disturbing dreams about the world and pollution. The world in his dream was filled with trash.  It was a real mess. When Walter woke up he realized that he had just had a bad dream. He realized that his friend was right.  It was up to him to help do something. He decided to help his friend, recycle, reuse, rethink and reduce trash as much as he could.
    Jack asked his teacher if his class could start a recycling program at his school.
    VanAllsburg, Chris. Just a Dream. Houghton Mifflin, 1990. ISBN:  97803955330864.7
    
    Discuss: How do you think the story, Just a Dream and seeing all that trash in the trash can at school led Jack to ask his teacher if the class might start a recycling program in their school? Do you think it is our responsibility to clean up the Earth? How is our Earth Day event answering that question? What are some things we can do to help our families, friends and classmates understand that taking care of the Earth is everyone’s responsibility?
    

Reflection plays a very important role in promoting student learning. The following suggested activities are ways to help students reflect on their learning after they have participated in a service event.  Choose one or more of the activities most appropriate to the service event and your students.

ACTIVITY ONE:
Have the students cut out a snowflake. Remind students that no two snowflakes are alike, so all snowflake designs will be acceptable. Have the students, using a crayon or marker; write a word on their snowflake that represents how they felt while participating in the Event activity.  When each student has completed placing their “feeling” word on their snowflake, have them each share their word with the class. After everyone has had an opportunity to share, place all the snowflakes on display to simulate a snowman and titled the display e.g. “Building Together”, “A Magical Snowman”, etc. Share that just as it takes lots of snow flakes to build a snowman it takes a lot of helping hands to make a LEAGUE Event a success.

ACTIVITY TWO:
Give the students an 8 ½” x 11”-sheet of multi-colored construction paper, a pair scissors, a glue stick/paste and a variety of old magazines and newspapers.  Tell them that they will have a designated amount of time to go through these magazines and newspapers to cut out pictures and /or words that could be used to describe their involvement in the recent Event.  Once they have cut out pictures or words, tell them to place their name somewhere on the construction paper and then glue the pictures and/or words they cut out to the construction paper being careful not to cover up their name.  Display these in the classroom and if time allows have each student share the contents of his or her collage with the rest of the class.

ACTIVITY THREE:
Give each student two pop sickle sticks and a cut out of a happy face and a sad face. Have them attach/glue each face to one end of each of the pop sickle sticks.  Tell the students that they are going to be asked to “vote” on a series of questions and they can register their “vote” by holding up one of their two faces.  (NOTE: You may choose to add that the students can hold up both faces, if they are unsure of their answer/or if they feel that their answer could be both a happy face and a sad face.)

Questions:

1. How did you first feel about doing this Event?
2. How did you feel while you were doing this Event?
3. How did you feel after the Event was over?
4. How do you think what you did made other people feel? 
5. How do you think the ‘face of our world’ would look if no one did these things?
6. How do you think the ‘face of our world’ would look if everyone was giving and sharing?

From the student’s votes create a one-dimensional block graph on a display board or use actual building blocks to show how students responded to each of the questions.  Discuss what the graph would tell someone who might be looking at it for information about the Event.

ACTIVITY FOUR:
Arrange the class into four groups. Have one group mime some of the activities they actually did during the Event, while the rest of the class tries to guess the activities.  Have the second group mime how they felt while being involved/working in the Event, while the rest of the class tries to guess their feelings.  Have the third group mime how they would feel if they were the ones being helped/received the cards, etc., while the rest of the class tries to guess their feelings.  And finally, have the fourth group mime different activities they might be able to do the next time that would also be helpful, while the rest of the class tries to guess the activities.  Discuss with the class how well they thought they did in identifying the various mimes and what they learned from doing this activity.