Tapestry of Faith: Sing to the Power: A Social Justice Program for Children Grades 4-5

Activity 1: Story - The Power of Half

Activity time: 10 minutes

Materials for Activity

Preparation for Activity

  • Read the story and prepare to share it with the group.
  • Read the discussion questions. Choose those that will best help the children share their interpretations of the story and relate it to their own lives.

Description of Activity

Read or tell the story to the group.

After the story, invite the group to be silent for a moment to think about the story.

Then, ask participants to recap the story in their own words. What they recall indicates what they found most meaningful or memorable.

Say something like:

Helping others can feel like a burden. I'm sure we've all had the experience of being asked to do a household chore and just feeling grumpy at being pulled away from doing something more fun. But the Salwen family was led by Hannah into giving a tremendous amount in a way that made them feel like their life was more joyful, and even more rich, than if they had kept their big house or their money.

Lead a discussion using these questions:

  • When have you felt joyful about giving away your time, money, or possessions?
  • If you had a bunch of money that you were going to give away to make the world better in some way, where might you want it to go? How would you decide?
  • What could you give away half of and feel great about it? This could be time, like half a Saturday, or money, like half a week's allowance, or energy, like half the effort you put into a baseball game.