TBT: The Wishing Tree

Happy Thursday!

This week's throwback is from 2012. I hope it inspires some classroom teachers to create their own Wishing Tree project (either related to elections or Thanksgiving - as in a Thankful Tree).

Original post: November 28, 2012

So this post is a little late, but I just loved the activity so much that I didn't want to miss out on sharing it :)



After the election madness, after casting our votes, and after analyzing the results, the Lower School all participated in  The Lower School Wishing Tree ceremony. Students wrote their wishes for their communities, their state, and they country. These wishes were created based on promises that our president made for our country, and students took it to a whole other level!

First, our class created a BrainFrame to brainstorm and remind ourselves of Obama's promises that we read during our election unit.

From here, we generated a list of our wishes. We briefly discussed the differences between wishes that are realistic and unrealistic. Then we discussed the differences between wishes that we want for ourselves, and wishes that we have for our country or communities. The kids generated their own ideas and I wrote them on chart paper to hang up in our Social Studies Corner. This list helped students when they went to generate their own wishes for the Wishing Tree.

The students were given blank leaves to draft their wish, then once their wish was finalized and edited, they rewrote their wishes on a sturdier leaf. They then decorated their leaves, and as a class, we held our Wishing Tree Ceremony.

It was a wonderful activity that the students really enjoyed. We really worked as a community to generate wishes and dreams for our community and country. We worked as a community to help each other come up with ideas. We celebrated as a community once our Wishing Tree was complete. I think it turned out beautifully...:)

What do you think?

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I'm linking up with The Teacher's Desk 6 for another Throwback Thursday post. Click the button below to join in on the fun!