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Curricula, Lesson Plans & Project Ideas
Need a lesson plan or step-by-step project
descriptions? Check out this library of real-life
service-learning curricula, designed by pros and
tested by educators just like yourself.
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Check out sample curricula, lesson plans, and project ideas:
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Volunteer San Diego
Curricula and Project Ideas
SAVY Toolkit:
Do you need help planning service-learning or
community service projects? This FREE leadership and
service toolkit will guide your students
through planning and implementing service
projects. Your students experience project based
learning while developing and demonstrating
character building and
leadership skills. This toolkit has many project
ideas that are easy for you to start implementing
now!
MLK Day Toolkit: Service projects come in all
shapes and sizes. This detailed toolkit will provide
you with everything from a biography of Martin
Luther King, Jr., to sample projects and planning
tips to make this National Day of Service your own.
Stories of Service: A
unique service-learning curriculum that pairs high school students
with local veterans to create a digital MOVIE
- a mini-documentary about the veteran’s
experiences. This exciting
intergenerational oral history project trains students
in
valuable 21st century job skills while demonstrating
the importance of service to community.
Guide to Youth Volunteer
Opportunities: Volunteer San Diego's comprehensive
agency directory
listing youth-friendly volunteer and service-learning opportunities
countywide.
Eye-On: Each of these service-learning
briefs focuses on a different issue -
environment,
literacy,
violence,
youth and education,
poverty,
and
technology - providing ideas for service,
celebration activities, local contacts and
potential partners in the San Diego area.
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Ready to Use Curricula and Lesson Plans
General K-12
FREE!
Boston Teachnet Service-Learning Standards Based
Models: Teachers
share their service-learning practices through
detailed work plans, related standards, and links to
teacher-developed materials (lesson plans,
certificates and evaluation forms) and
student-created final projects (posters, pamphlets,
photography, etc.).
FREE!
Community Lessons: Promising Curriculum Practices:
These lesson plans have been gathered from K-12
teachers over the last two years. Each includes
rationales for connecting academic content to
service-learning activities, ways to assess academic
and community outcomes, connections to various
Framework Learning Standards, lesson plans,
solutions to organizational barriers, timelines,
resources and materials, and goals for the future.
Giraffe Heroes Program: The
world needs heroes, people with vision and courage,
people who are willing to stick their necks out and
take responsibility for solving tough problems, on
the planet and on the block.
This story-based citizenship, character education,
and service-learning program helps
get their stories told in the media and in schools.
Curriculum
available by grade level (K-2, 3-5, 6-9, 10-12).
Roots and Shoots:
A program of the Jane Goodall Institute, Roots &
Shoots provides kids with a framework for organizing
and achieving meaningful projects that promote care
and concern for animals, people and the planet.
Among
other resources, Roots & Shoots offers affordable
age-specific lesson
plan books and activity guides for classroom and
after school educators.
Learning to Give: Learning to Give’s
K-12 lesson plans contain both academic content
about philanthropy and skill development activities
that engage students in giving and serving in their
classrooms, schools and communities. Select a
grade level below to browse our collection of
lessons. You may also want to visit
our custom
Lesson Search Engine by Subject Area, Grade
Level, Michigan Curriculum Framework Standards,
Indiana Academic Standards, Philanthropy Themes,
National Key Words/Concepts and Lesson Summaries.
FREE!
SLICE (Service-Learning Ideas and Curricular
Examples):
This new tool from the National Service-Learning
Clearinghouse
is
an easy-to-use database full of high quality
service-learning lesson plans, syllabi, and project
ideas.
There is an opportunity to
promote your curriculum example to become a part of
this growing collection of quality service-learning
lesson plans, syllabi, and project ideas and let
others know about the successful approaches used in
your program.Back to sample curricula
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Environment/ School Gardens
NEW! Water Quality Service Learning
Program: The
Water Quality Service Learning Program uses specific
science content standards as the basis for academic
learning and incorporates key elements of quality
service learning to support educators in the
classroom and the afterschool program.
Units of study are aligned to California
Content Standards and focus on California's growing
problem of polluted runoff.
Youth Summary of Climate Change: The United
Nations Development Program's (UNDP) invites young
people to make a short, colorful summary of the
Human Development Report (HDR). The HDR is the most
widely read document published by the UN every year
and through this opportunity, will reach more young
people.
FREE!
Kids Gardening Teachers’ Room:
This site, which is affiliated with the National
Gardening Association, offers classroom stories,
articles, project ideas and lesson plans. It also
provides links to other school garden projects as
well as information about grants and resources for
gardening with kids.
Facing the Future
provides
teachers, students, and the public with
sustainability and global issues educational
materials as well as ideas for action to shape the
future. Select curricula is available FREE for
download or you can choose to purchase their
complete curriculum.
Project SWELL (Stewardship: Water Education for
Lifelong Leadership)
is a school-based science curricula that
teaches children about the importance of the
region's recreational waterways and human-water
interaction through a well-balanced, comprehensive,
and hands-on water quality and pollution prevention
program of study.Back to sample curricula
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Character
Education
Learning for Life: Learning for Life is
an educational program designed to meet the needs of
youth and schools. It helps young people deal with
the many challenges of growing up by teaching good
character and decision-making and then linking these
skills to the real world. Learning for Life has
age-appropriate, grade-specific Teachers' Guides for
Kindergarten through grade 12. The lesson plans
reinforce language arts, science, math and social
studies and are written clearly, concisely and
completely, so very little or no preparation is
needed for implementation. To see a sample table
of contents, view a specific lesson plan or learn
more about our programs, please visit
www.learningforlifesdic.org.
Special Olympics - Get Into It:
Students learn about the Special Olympics and the
athletes' ability to contribute to society through
leadership roles both on and off the playing field.
They will come to appreciate the critical role of
service-learning. Most important, they will be
invited to make a difference themselves.
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Civics
and Social Studies
Constitutional Rights Foundation: The foundation
seeks to instill in our nation's youth a deeper
understanding of citizenship through values
expressed in our Constitution and its Bill of Rights
and to educate young people to become active and
responsible participants in our society. The
Foundation offers outstanding civic education
curricula.
Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools: This
campaign was created to increase the
quality and quantity of civic learning in schools,
grades K-12. Find lessons &
practices, assessment tools and school & district
models all on their website.
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Disaster Preparedness
Disaster Preparedness Service-Learning Project:
Students engage as active participants of school
safety teams while reinforcing classroom science.
●Pre-service
activities focus on learning about disasters and how
communities respond.
●Service activities
engage students in making recommendations to their
school safety council to update the school’s safety
procedure. Their voice will not only assist the
school in assessing their safety procedures but will
help them see the need for all home, school and
communities to be prepared for emergency situations.
●Post-service
activities will focus again on classroom study, but
will encourage students to create a common list of
disaster preparation needs and reflect on what they
have learned.
Special Thanks: This curriculum was
developed by Volunteer Center Orange County in
partnership with the Orange County Department of
Education, the Costa Mesa Fire Department and the
American Red Cross.
American Red Cross - Masters of Disasters:
The Masters of Disasters series
is an educational tool that will teach youth the
importance of preparedness while reducing fear of
the unexpected. The goal is to empower youth with
the confidence and knowledge to prepare for
disasters and help create a culture of preparedness.
The lessons are non-threatening, age appropriate and
adhere to national education standards.
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Film-based Curricula
FREE!
Community Classroom
ITVS Classroom is an educational resource providing
new documentary video content and accompanying
curricular materials, lesson plans and homework
assignments to high school and community college
instructors and youth-serving, community-based
organizations. The program launched in March
2007 with its first film companion guide to HIP
HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes.Back to sample curricula
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Health,
Fitness, & Nutrition
Eat Right: Students learn about food groups and
meal planning. They also help organize a school wide food drive and decorate the bags in which the
food will be delivered.
Kids Care Eat Wise - Exercise!: These projects are
designed to educate kids about healthy eating and
physical activity. They empower kids to make healthy food
choices, exercise and mobilize kids to engage in
service activities related to nutrition and
exercise.
Children Acknowledging Nutrition (CAN): Students work
with local community organizations and individuals
to research and compile data supporting good
nutrition. This information can be used to share
with the community through student created
brochures, seminars, videos, and healthy-choice food
tasting events throughout the year.
Food Baskets for Nutrition: Students learn about food groups, nutritional meals
and the nutritional needs of their community by having representatives
from local service agencies visit their class.
Students organize a school wide food drive (or
penny drive leading to a shopping trip at a local
grocery).
Wake Up Call to Fitness and Nutrition: As a way to
achieve their own fitness and nutrition plans, high
school students keep individual Fitness and Food Diaries and adopt a second grade class at a nearby
elementary school. They distribute surveys to
the youngsters and
follow up with weekly aerobics routines and food
pyramid lessons.
Drive Kids to Be Fit: This website is a great
resource that offers practical tips and tools on how
families can maintain a healthy weight by making
smart food choices and increasing physical activity.
There are plenty of FREE resources to parents and
teachers as well.
Team Nutrition
is an integrated, behavior-based, comprehensive plan
for promoting the nutritional health of the Nation's
school children. The U.S. Department of Agriculture
— Food and Nutrition Services developed Team
Nutrition in response to the need to improve the
nutritional quality of meals served in schools and
the school nutrition environment.
Helping Others to Feed Themselves: In conjunction
with a unit on nutrition, the students learn what
they can do to help people living in poverty provide the necessary nutrition to
their own families.
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Project
Planning Tools
Project resources:
Project ideas, planning tips and funding
resources for planning your own service project.
Days of
Service: Join the more than 20 million people
who volunteer each year for national Days of
Service. Each day links to a unique curriculum
and resources you can use with your students, clubs,
etc. to plan your own service project.
Inclusive Service-Learning Manual:
The result of
a long-term collaboration between the Magellan
Foundation and the New York State Education
Department Learn and Serve America Program, this
manual was designed to provide instruction and
technical assistance to school districts who are
interested in students with and without disabilities
working side-by-side on service-learning activities.
You can
download an electronic version of the manual or
contact
Fran Hollon at the New York State Education
Department for a CD-ROM.
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