Generous: New Unit!

Central Idea: Being generous can help us connect with one another

Lines of Inquiry:

We are generous beings

People have different understandings of generosity

There is give and take in generosity

Today the Fire and Earth groups joined together to begin the unit. 

I asked the children what they thought the word generosity might mean:

No - Billy                          Being kind - Zoe

Yes - Ryleigh                    Going for a walk - Eva

Go - Matthew                    Sharing - Allye

Car - Michael                    Being thankful - William

Before reading a story called The Big Block of Chocolate I told the children that some of the characters are generous and some are not. After reading the story we would discuss what they thought generous might mean after thinking about what happened in the story.  In the story the characters come upon a block of chocolate one by one and hide it so they can eat it all themselves later, except for the ant who calls his brothers and sisters to share. The discussion we had showed me that the children understood that one idea of being generous means sharing and that all the characters were not generous, except for the ant.

 

What should we do with our chocolate?
The children wanted to share it! Should we share it with just our group or should we share it with everyone? The children voted and I asked them to explain their thinking. There is no right or wrong answer - the point it to have the children think about their thinking. Dear Matthew was in quite the conundrum, as you will see . . .
Share with Everyone:
Bela - because it's kind
Eva - because it's nice
Zoe - because it's kind
Billy - we can share with everyone because there's enough
Share with just Us:
Allye - because the other kids are still working in their groups
Chloe - I don't want to share with everyone
William - there's not enough
Ryleigh - because there's just a little bit
Michael - there's not that much chocolate
Matthew - We can eat the chocolate now and they won't know. . . .but if they find out they will be upset. Maybe the ones who don't get chocolate can have a freezie, but then the ones who didn't get a freezie will be sad . . . I don't know, that's all I think.