The Learning Tree

I've always liked the paper trees on walls in classrooms and decided to get one for our classroom from the parent-teacher store this year.  But what to do with it?  I know you can decorate it with lots of different things for different seasons and holidays, but I wanted the decorations to mean something to the kids, whether it was books read or days spent doing schoolwork without complaining.  For now, I've decided this is our "Learning Tree".

The kids and I talked about what they wanted to learn and accomplish during the year. Then we wrote their goals down on laminated leaves with a dry-erase marker and put them on our tree.  I told them I would put a coupon for something on the back, and when they accomplished that goal, they could pull it off and get the surprise.

We don't have a lot of goals up just yet, but some of them include: learning times tables, finishing a math book, reading the rest of the books in a series, and doing school without complaining for a week (who knows if they will ever get that one).  Maren also decided she wanted to write a report about the Titanic.  I don't know why, but I said sure.  We also set some small, easily attainable goals to help get them motivated, like completing so many typing lessons or finishing through a certain number of puzzle sheets.

All in all, I like our learning tree and think it adds something nice to our classroom.  I may change it up for different seasons, but I like this idea of having the kids set learning goals.