As part of the extension activities, learners will visit a barn or other new construction site in order to see the enormity of the task of barn raising or general construction. Obtain a video or personal interview, or arrange for an on-site visit involving Habitat for Humanity or other community voluntary action such as a Make a Difference Day project, held each year on the last weekend in October, to give learners a clearer understanding of philanthropic activity.

Anticipatory Set:


Ask the class, “What do you think it feels like to wake up in the morning and know that this is the day something very special to you and your family will occur? Has that ever happened to you?” Discuss the responses.

• Ask learners what it takes to build a house today. After going through the steps that home building requires, ask students if they think it could be done alone, without help. Then ask learners what they think it was like when a family decided to build a barn one hundred and fifty years ago. What things were different about building then? Could the barn have been built alone?
  
  
• Perhaps one of the learners will bring up the idea that there were special occasions called “barn raisings”. When these occurred, the entire community came together and put up the barn in a short time. Have learners discuss what they already know about barn raisings. Discuss the importance of “community” in such a situation.
  
  
• Read the story that accompanies this lesson (“Too Big a Task—Then and Now,” Attachment One) of two boys in very different times and very different places. Ask learners to analyze and compare the boys’ feelings. Tying in the last lesson, ask them if there are any contrasts in the way each boy reacted.
  
  
• Draw two intersecting circles (Venn diagram). In the middle section will be those characteristics in both stories that were the same (compare). The two outside circles will represent the differences (contrast). Let the left outside circle represent Thaddeus’ story and the right outside circle represent Chad’s story. Discuss what the philanthropic acts were in the story and ask learners if they were similar even though the stories cover very different periods of time. Were there clues in the story that hinted that this was not the first time each of these acts of philanthropy was done?
  
  
• If it is possible, arrange for learners to visit a barn in order to see the enormity of the task of barn raising. A similar experience would be to have students visit a home building site.
  
  
• After learners have noticed the similarities and differences in the stories, ask them to develop a list of analogies from the story.
  Examples might include:
  Breeches are to jeans
  as rooster is to alarm clock
  as barn raising is to Habitat for Humanity.
  
  
• If possible, log on to the Internet and go to the Habitat for Humanity home page for a fact sheet and a list of 82 sites in Michigan where homes have been built or the Make A Difference Day home page. It is also possible to read their newsletters and find out about future projects.
  
  
• Divide the class into teams of two. Give each team one sheet of paper. Cut each paper in half lengthwise and ask each member of the team to draw a cover for one of the two stories that make up “Too Big a Task--Then and Now.” Be careful to be authentic in the illustrations. When each team is finished, tape the two halves together again to represent the completed book cover.

• With a senior citizen or grandparent’s help, students can build a bluebird house. After the houses are built, students can go with their building partners out to the meadows or parks to install the houses for this beautiful endangered bird. This project can span several disciplines:
  
  
  • Science in studying the habitat and characteristics of the bluebird;
    
    
  • Math in measuring, determining angles, reading a blueprint, and all kinds of calculations and computation;
    
    
  • Writing in keeping a journal of the experience;
    
    
  • Reading in researching, retrieving, and processing information to finish the project.
    
    
• This project would benefit those in nursing homes. Charitable organizations like the Red Cross and Mercy International have a programs providing lap blankets for those in a nursing home. Children can be taught by senior citizens to knit squares of a certain dimension. The Red Cross will have the squares sewn together for the residents to warm their laps. This is a nice tie-in to another historical event, the quilting bee.
  
  
• Write a newspaper article reporting a philanthropic deed in history. The article should have the word “philanthropy” in it as well as the concept “private action for the common good.”
  
  
• Write and put on a play depicting a historical, philanthropic deed. This can include songs, poetry and dance. This can be performed at the pediatric floor of a hospital, all schools, nursing homes, day care centers, or senior citizens centers.
  
  
• Set up a peer learning session for students in the same grade or with younger students to help students learn about the historic tradition of barn raising. Learners can assist the younger learners to actually construct a barn using popsicle sticks.
  
  
• Have learners make “Books on Tape.” They would read books and tape them for those who would like to listen to the stories.
  
  
• Learners may write a thank-you to a character in literature or history, thanking them for the philanthropic deed. The note should include philanthropy in its text.

  Example:
  Dear Clara Barton,
  Thank you for meeting the needs of the soldiers. Because of you we now have the Red Cross.
  

• Make a Timeline of Philanthropic Deeds in History. As an alternative, students can make a timeline of their own personal acts of philanthropy.
  
  
• Adopt a hallway in the school and display student work related to philanthropy.
  
  
• Recess: Devise a fair play community.
  
  
• Make a trophy for a Philanthropic Hall of Fame to represent a philanthropic person in history. The trophy should include name, date, accomplishment, and a visual on the top representing the event. Example: An available cylinder-shaped box, wrapped in paper with Harriet Tubman’s name and a Big Dipper at the top. A brochure can accompany this trophy, giving more details about the talent and treasure that was shared.
  
  
• Knit a blanket and give the completed project to a homeless shelter.
  
  
• Build a birdhouse and put it in the community.
  
  
• Rewrite a piece of literature studied and set the story in the modern day, perhaps in school. Learners may think of a situation where there is a need in the school that is passed over by staff and students alike. The climax of the piece should involve a person filling the need for the community, modeling it after the plot in the literature.