Ben Zoma said, “Who is wise?  The one who learns from everyone!  Who is mighty?  The one who rules over themselves!  Who is rich?  The one who is happy with what they’ve got!  Who is honored?  The one who shows honor to others!” -Pirke Avot 4:1

Ben Zoma’s advice reinforces the idea that this world is NOT as it seems.  Sometimes the world seems like a confusing, messy place.  Sometimes the world seems like it makes no sense.  Sometimes it seems as if the world is filled with pain, sadness, or ugliness.  But, as ben Zoma hints, this is only a matter of perception.  If we choose to approach life and the world differently, it can be what we want it to be.  The world can be what we make it to be.

If we wish to learn and grow wiser, we can.  If we want to be mighty, we already are; we need only exercise the power that is already at hand.  Wealth?  That comes in recognizing the difference between needs and wants.  And honor?  We get what we give.  So much of life comes down to the choices that we make, and the way in which we choose to measure success and failure.

“Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.”  -Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Questions for Reflection

1. What in your life can make you feel wealthy?
2. What types of things do we learn from others to help us be wise?
3. What power do we personally have at hand that makes us mighty?
4. How can you show contentment and incorporate this value in the classroom?

At morning meetings, invite students to share a new thing each day that makes them feel happy.  You can use the tune “Grateful” as an opening song (see Music section, Track # 3 from Good Choices, Volume 2) in which each student will have a moment to share something they appreciate in the world.
When possible, during your end-of-day routine, play the song “Beauty of the World” by Sababa, allowing students to blow bubbles and sing along.  To access this song, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvWqluu5f20 .

All the World
Materials

• Copy of All the World 
• After the Story: original All the World book, chart paper, markers, crayons

Technology

• Music video “If You’re Happy And You Know It!”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71hqRT9U0wg Musical version of the story: http://www.schooltube.com/video/715cc7fba0d128be954f/ 
• Interview with author and illustrator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmE9fcRnLvE

Introducing The story

For strategies for teaching vocabulary, see Appendix, Vocabulary Strategies. 

Build background knowledge by asking the students to brainstorm a list of things they do with their friends and family on weekends when they’re not in school.  Record their answers on chart paper.  Ask the students how these activities make them feel. 

Take a Picture Walk. Tell the students that we are going to read a book about the happy times a family and their friends experience throughout the course of a day, from morning until night.  Show the cover of All the World, pointing out the title, author, and illustrator.  Ask the students where the children on the book cover are going and have them share their own beach stories.  Flip through the pages and ask what’s happening in the story.  Ask the students to look for things in the book that make them feel happy.

The book contains vocabulary that might be new for the students.  Guide them in using either text or picture clues to decipher meanings.  For example, from the text, look at pebble and hum.  From the illustrations, interpret the meanings of moat, hive, husk, cob, stumble, kin, and harp.

Reading The Story

Read the story aloud, stopping when appropriate to explore illustrations, address comments, clarify, predict, and guide students’ understanding of the story and the values to be content—same’ach b’chelko and to be grateful—hakarat hatov.   

Ask the following questions:

• What are the children building at the beach?  What does the girl find?
• Explain that some words may have multiple meanings.  What does bed mean in the story?  What does crown mean?
• How is a farmer’s market different from a supermarket?  How are they similar?
• Where would you go if you could fly like a bird?
• What do you like to do on rainy days?
• Look at the illustration of the girl next to the words “Hungry tummy, supper’s soon.”  How do you think she feels?  Why?
• Look at the picture of the people listening to or making music.  What musical instruments do you see in the picture?  Who looks like they’re having the most fun?  If this were your family gathering, which person would you be in the picture? Why?

After The Story

Give the students time to share personal connections they made with the story.  What things in the world give them a feeling of happiness or peace? What things in the world make them feel grateful?

Guide the students in creating their own pages that could fit into All the World.  Do the first page together as a class.  Begin by having the students brainstorm places that make them feel happy.  By a class vote, select one specific place.  Then make a list of all the things they might see and do there.  Next, choose several words or phrases and fit them together in a rhyming sentence ending with “All the world’s …”  Write the class sentence on large chart paper.  Ask the students what illustrations should go along with the sentence and allow them to take turns adding an illustration to the page.  Finally, work with the students one-on-one and help them repeat the process to create pages of their own.  The pages may be displayed individually or bound together as a class book.

Conclude by showing the music video “If You’re Happy and You Know It!,” sung by Susan Reed, from the book and CD adapted by Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Sophie Fatus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71hqRT9U0wg.  In this multicultural version of the traditional song, children from cultures all over the world clap their hands, stomp their feet, pat their heads, and much more.  Have the students sing and dance along. 

View one or both of the following and ask students to share their favorite “moment.”
the DVD of All the World, narrated by Joanne Woodward, wherein the book’s original illustrations are brought to life through animation
All the World put to the music of Darryl Van Horne: http://www.schooltube.com/video/715cc7fba0d128be954f/

Rhyme Time 
Review rhyming by reading and discussing some of the rhyming words in the book. Supply the listening center with All the World audio, along with a copy of the book so that the children may read along and encourage them to listen for words that rhyme. After listening, challenge students to come up with their own pairs of rhyming words. As appropriate, expand this activity. For example, guide students as they use the rhyme pairs they suggested at the end of sentences to form couplets.

Feed the Birds Read the words from All the World “Nest, bird, feather, fly… All the world has got its sky,” and discuss that living organisms depend on their environments. Follow up by making bird feeders. Mix one part oatmeal and one part shortening and spread on pinecones. Roll the pinecones in birdseed and hang from a tree.

Sand Castle Center 
Set up a sand castle building center with moist sand, shells, and containers of various shapes. As the students build castles and moats, help them to identify the shapes being used.

Wonder-Full World of Nature
Foster the students’ feelings of wonder at the beauty around them and their connection with the world at large through a multi-disciplinary nature experience. During this experience, encourage students to describe their feelings as they encounter amazing things.
• Take the students on an outdoor nature walk and ask them to collect objects that they find beautiful. Interact with the students as they collect their objects. Make comments and ask questions about the qualities of their found materials. For example, discuss shapes, colors, textures, smells, and what the students think of when they look at the objects.
• Upon returning to the classroom, have the students sit in a circle. Combine all the collected materials and place them in the center. Ask the students what they see, looking for similarities and differences in the items. Help the students form categories for sorting the materials (for example, by size, color, shape, texture, etc.). Have them sort the collected objects into piles and make a label describing each category. The labeled materials may then be displayed in the science center.
• Next, have each student choose one nature object that they find the most beautiful and ask them to make an observational drawing of the item. Have the students invent names for their objects (for example, Feather Franny, Lou the Leaf, Tinkerbell, etc.) and write their words on their drawing paper.
• Finally, let the students use the collected materials to create art collages or sculptures. Record the students’ descriptions about their creations.

List of All Songs

You Get What You Get
by Miss  Emily Aronoff Teck

Inspiration Text

“It is good to give thanks to G-d and sing praises.” -Psalm 92

Activity

Ask students to think about all the things, people, and places in their lives that make them happy.  When we feel thankful for what makes us happy, that is called being “grateful.”

Teach the students the chorus of the song “Grateful”:  “I’m so full of thank “yous,” I feel great! I feel great, I feel grateful!” and incorporate the practice of “looking for thank yous (or phrase it “counting our blessings”) when students need cheering up.

In this tune, each student takes a turn completing a line.  When you sing it in your community, add lines to the pre-chorus so that more people can participate in suggesting reasons to say thank you. This tunes lends itself easily to presentations. See example at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcBe5xN6ABk.

Lyrics

If I’m feeling mad or sad, I know there’s a cure. Make a list of “thank yous.” I’ll feel better for sure. G-d made all creation, Said this is very good. So, let’s share appreciation, Like we know we should. CHORUS I’ll say thank you for _____________.  Say thank you for _______________. I’ll say thank you for _____________. Say thank you for _______________. I’m so full of thank yous, I feel great! I feel great, I feel grateful! I’m so full of thank yous, I feel great! I feel great, I feel grateful!

Celebrate “thanks-giving” every day, Every moment to spare. You’ll find reasons to share a smile, When thank yous we share. More than using manners, Bigger than being polite, Living a truly grateful way Will help you sleep at night. CHORUS

Additional Music Connections

Observation of students responding to stories and poems in discussion, in writing, and through movement, music, art, and drama in ways that reflect personal understanding and interpretation of the value same’ach b’chelko

Happy Class Book

Encourage parents and children to share happy times by contributing to a class “same’ach b’chelko” (“be happy with what you have”) book.  Send home a sheet of cardstock with each student, along with a note explaining that the students are exploring the Jewish value same’ach b’chelko in class.  Tell the parents that you are making a class book on the theme and would like them to participate in the project by working with their child at home.  Ask parents to discuss with their child what brings their family happiness and then, together with their child, make a collage on the cardstock depicting those places, events, or activities.  They may use photos, magazine clippings, stickers, drawings, etc., as well as words and phrases to express themselves.  When the collages are returned, slip them into plastic page protectors and bind them in a three-ring notebook.  Add a same’ach b’chelko cover and display the book for the students to read in the classroom.

* PJ library Books