This character education mini-lesson is not intended to be a service learning lesson or to meet the K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice. The character education units will be most effective when taught in conjunction with a student-designed service project that provides a real world setting in which students can develop and practice good character and leadership skills.  For ideas and suggestions for organizing service events go to The League.

Anticipatory Set:

Write this quote on a display area:

"Give thanks. Appreciate what you DO have…the more we give thanks, the more we receive to be thankful for. Gratitude is the gift that always gives back."
--Matthew McConaughey

• Tell the students that Texas native Matthew McConaughey demonstrates his caring by establishing the J. K. Livin Foundation (short for just keep living) to honor and show gratitude for his father. He decided to start the J.K. Livin Foundation because "part of living is about giving back."
• Ask the learners to think about and discuss the relationship between caring and thanksgiving, or gratitude. Ask, "Can caring be an act of gratitude? Is being thankful an act of caring?" Remind the learners of the celebrities and their philanthropic passions -- what they care about -- from the previous lesson. Ask, "How might what they care about be a response of gratitude?"
• Ask the learners to look at the list of things they care about (from previous lesson) and have them write next to each of those things whether they care about it because it is partly a response of gratitude.
• Allow volunteers to name things that they care about and if they are related to gratitude.