BELONGING IN SERVICE-LEARNING is to play the LJCDS version of the Bean Game 1 ( ours is actually the “ bead ” game , so we don ’ t waste food , which we feel is an important example to set ). Each team of students is given a budget sheet with categories like “ home ,” “ technology ,” “ school ,” and “ pets .” They draw a family card that dictates how many people and animals are in their family helping them determine which expenses are necessary , and they draw a card at random to tell their team how many beads their family will start with . Often we are met with cries of : “ Yes ! My family has 42 beads ! We can live in a mansion and have iPhones !” and “ Wait , why do they get more beads for fewer people ?! That ’ s not fair !” These reactions naturally lead into a conversation about how people are born into various socioeconomic sta-
“ Since some of our playhouses go to Head Start programs , we also talk about preschool and the advantages it provides in terms of giving students who do attend preschool not only a social-emotional leg up when they attend kindergarten , but also long term benefits ...” tuses by chance . Once the teams explain their budgets for the first round , we have them draw an event card from the deck . Event cards range from “ a long lost uncle passed away and left you 14 beads ” to “ your car broke down , it will cost 6 beads to repair it ” to “ finish college and get a raise , collect 2 beads !” The idea behind this is that so many things happen to us by chance , and it can be challenging based on our socioeconomic circumstances .
Since some of our playhouses go to Head Start programs , we also talk about preschool and the advantages it provides in terms of giving students who do attend preschool not only a social-emotional leg up when they attend kindergarten , but also long-term benefits including lower instances of substance abuse , higher chances of attending and graduating college , and even an impact on positive parenting practices in adulthood ( Brookings , 2016 ). We then , of course , come back to how both pre-school attendance and affordable home ownership can give people a leg up in socioeconomic circumstances for not only them , but also future generations of their families .
We explain to our fifth-grade students that while they are too young to volunteer on a Habitat for Humanity worksite , the playhouses they build act as a fundraiser for San Diego Habitat and benefit preschool
1 . https :// financeintheclassroom . org / passport / downloads / bean _ game . pdf
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CSEE Connections Summer 2022 Page 9