Leader Hints: Think of how compassion and giving has helped you in your career and your life. Were there times you were not compassionate that hurt you? Think of how others' compassion helped you. Think of how others' lack of compassion hurt you. Your students need to know that compassion is important to you. By jotting down these formative life experiences before the lesson, you'll have them to share during the discussion time.

Introduction

1. Introduce "generosity" as the trait of the month. Define generosity as "helping other people with what you have."

2. "Let's do an activity that I'd like us to talk about."

Linking Arms; Standing Together

Ask students to sit down on the floor with their knees bent front of them, feet flat on the floor and knees pointing toward the ceiling. Hands can't touch the ground. Now ask each student to try to stand up from that position (not moving feet or touching the floor with your hands). (Neither tell them to do it alone nor to do it with others. Some will probably try to cheat by putting their hands on the floor or moving their feet, so keep an eye out!)

After they try it for a moment by themselves and realize the difficulty, tell them there is a way that most of them can do it. Let them think and try some more. (If someone thinks of sitting down back to back with someone else, let them do it. If not, instruct them next in how to do it. Either way, the point is made.)

Tell them how it's done. Ask each student to find a partner. Put their legs in the same position as before , sit back to back with the partner and link arms at their elbows. Try to stand up by pushing against each other. If successful, join another successful group so that you try it as a group of four. If the four are successful, try it with eight. See which group can do it with the most people. 

Debriefing

While you may complain that I didn't say anything at first about that we could work together, neither did I say you had to do it individually. What if, instead of just thinking about getting ourselves up, we'd each thought of how to help another person to get up? We might have figured it out and gotten us both up?

You see, by helping others, we often help ourselves. People who are generous to others find that other people are generous to them.

Discussion

Who has helped you with something that was hard for you to do? (Get some discussion. Maybe get it started by mentioning someone who has helped you). What does it feel like when someone helps you?

How have you helped other people? What did that feel like to know you had helped someone?

Brainstorm and Drawing Activity

Come up with as many ways as you can that you can help others at school, at home, and in your neighborhood. (Write them on the board under the categories "School," "Home," and "Neighborhood."

Draw a picture of you being generous by helping somebody. 

Alternate Activity: Generosity Pays Off 

Before class, talk to one of the first students who arrives and secretly give her a dollar bill. Tell her that there will be a game and to give the bill to the 10th (less if smaller group) person who introduces his/herself to her.

After everyone arrives, tell the students that someone in the class has $1.00 to give away to a student who introduces him/herself to that student for the 10th time. In order to get it, you must tell that person your name and something you're interested in.

Debriefing

This week's character word is generosity. Generosity is when we give to other people. One thing we can give people is our friendship. And we make friends be being friendly.

In this game, what motivated us to be friendly? (We knew that by being friendly we might get a dollar.) Actually, we get much more than $1.00 by giving people our friendship. What are some of the other things we get from friendships? (Write their answers on the board.)

Action Point

This week let's give more people the gift of friendship by asking them more about their interests. By taking an interest in others, more people will take an interest in you. If someone asks you about yourself, ask them back. That's the way friendships start. Let's be generous.