Reading Group (Ms Steans) - Tuesday 17 May

Reading Group Activity (Ms Steans) - Tuesday 17 May

The Butterfly Effect

Yesterday our reading group discussed kindness and how acts of kindness could have a really positive impact on other people.  This linked perfectly with out current topic 'Cause and Effect'.  We talked briefly about the 'Butterfly Effect'.

Read the brief overview (below) about Chris Rosati and how his actions have impacted on others, then watch the video outlining his story.

Chris Rosati – The Butterfly Effect Spreads Kindness and Inspires Kids Around the World

Chris Rosati wanted to see what one random act of kindness could do to change the world.  He was testing “The Butterfly Effect” which is the idea that one good deed can inspire many others.

Chris gave $50 to two young girls in a restaurant one day in his hometown of Durham, North Carolina.  He want not sure if anything would ever come from it.  But then, several weeks later, he learned that they had used the money to to help poor people in Africa!

And that was just the start!  The Butterfly Effect caught on in a big way!  Chris’s one action caused many good deeds to happen.

Now Chris’s is $50 offering grants through his organisation, InspireMediaNetwork, to kids around the world who want to do good.  If all of this is not enough, Chris has done all of this despite having ALS, a very serious disease.

Chris is a true inspiration and role model.  Check out his super inspiring story below!

Activity:

Topics for Discussion:

• What do you think about The Butterfly Effect?
• What random act of kindness can you do right now?
• Do you think random acts of kindness can change people’s lives?

1)  With a buddy - brainstorm as many ideas as possible about ways you can have a positive impact on others.  Write a list of ideas that you, or those around you, could do as 'Random Acts of Kindness'.  These random acts could just be enough to make someones day, or indeed they could be the start of a your very own Butterfly Effect!

2) Read the list of quotes below.  Find your favourite - discuss with your buddy what it means and be ready to share with your group why you like this quote so much ... and how you can put it in to action yourself.  Make a poster (on A4 paper) of your favourite quote to display on the wall.

If we can all give a little more to others, we will not only be be better people ourselves, but the world will be a better place.  As Margaet Cho said, “Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways, it can change someone else’s life forever.”

Check out these inspiring quotes about giving and generosity:

• “The meaning of life is to find your gift.  The purpose of life is to give it away” – Pablo Picasso
• “Happiness doesn’t result from what we get, but from what we give.” – Ben Carson
• “No one has ever become poor by giving.” – Anne Frank
• “Never get tired of doing little things for others, sometimes those little things occupy the biggest parts of their hearts.” – Unknown
• “Sometime when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways, it can change someone else’s life forever.” – Margaret Cho
• “What I spent I had; what I saved I lost; what I gave, I have.” – German motto
• “No person was ever honoured for what he received. He was honoured for what he gave.” – Calvin Coolidge
• “I must be willing to give whatever it takes to do good to others. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts.” – Mother Teresa
• “Do all the good you can,
  By all the means you can,
  In all the ways you can,
  In all the places you can,
  At all the times you can,
  To all the people you can,
  As long as ever you can.” – John Wesley
• “You will discover that you have two hands.  One is for helping yourself and the other is for helping others.” – Audrey Hepburn
• “Life is not about giving up or giving in.  Life is about giving.” – Anthony Douglas Williams
• “I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy.” – Kahlil Gibran
• “The true meaning of life is to plant trees, and create shade where you do not necessarily expect to sit.” – Kamari aka Lyrikal
• “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchhill
• “We rise by lifting others.”  – Robert Ingersoll
• “The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Ghandi
• “For it is in giving that we receive.” – Francis of Assisi
• “The only gift is a portion of thyself.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” – Charles Dickens
• “There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” – John Holmes 
• “Think of giving not as a duty, but as a privilege.” – John D. Rockefeller
• “Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• “You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
• “As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way.” – Mary Anne Radmacher
• “The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.” – Lao Tzu