Cooperative Games

Terry Orlick's book, The Cooperative Sports & Games Book (Pantheon Books, 1978) was the source for cooperative games in this session. See pages 20, 24, 27 and 38.

Stories about Compassion

• Earth Care: World Folktales to Talk About by Margaret Read MacDonald (The Shoe String Press, 1999) is a collection of world folk tales that emphasize the interconnectedness of all beings, and the concept of caring.
• The Book of Virtues by William Bennett, Jr. (Simon and Schuster, 1993) has a chapter on compassion that includes a number of wonderful stories and poems.
• Once Upon a Time: Storytelling to Build Character and Prevent Bullying, by Elisa Pearmain (Character Development Group, 2006), is a collection of world folk tales that help teach about kindness in its many forms.
• In The Two Brothers: A Legend of Jerusalem retold by Neil Waldman (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1997), two brothers who live on opposite sides of a field worry about each other's wellbeing. In the night they put grain into one another's storehouses, until the night they meet in the middle of the field and rejoice.
• One of the most popular folk tale motifs across nearly every culture on Earth is the situation in which a kind-hearted person helps another person or animal and later is helped by them in return. Examples of these that appear in children's picture book form include:
• Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale retold by John Steptoe (Scholastic Inc., 1989)
• The Tongue-Cut Sparrow by Momoko Ishii, translated by Katherine Paterson (Lodestar Books, 1987)
• "The Greedy Man" in Moon Tales, retold by R. Singh and D. Lush. (Bloomsburg Publishing, 1999)

True Stories

• Caring by Robin Doak Raintree (Steck-Vaughn Publishers, 2002) is a book written for children about different types of caring. For each type of caring, the author provides real-life examples from "small deeds" to profiles in courage. The book includes information about Craig Kielburger a 12-year-old Ontario boy who started the international organization, Free the Children, after learning about a Pakistani boy who was murdered for speaking out against child labor practices.
• Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul by Jack Canfield (Health Communications, Inc., 1998) includes 101 stories for children about caring, courage and kindness.
• Kids Random Acts of Kindness edited by Dawna Markova (Conari Press, 1994) contains stories by and for children that demonstrate acts of caring and kindness.
• A website celebrates the achievements of caring kids from 5th grade up, recognized annually since 1995 by the Prudential insurance company’s Spirit of Community Awards.
• The Giraffe Heroes Project honors people who "Stick their necks out for the common good." Read about heroes of all ages and their projects.
• This website by author Jeffrey Moses has quotes from his book, Oneness: Great Principles Shared by all Religions (Ballantine Books, 2002), that show the similarities among many religious principles in both word and intent. It includes such themes as Love thy Neighbor, the Golden Rule and Blessed to Forgive.