Growth Tree - Classroom Activity
The Growth Tree - Classroom Activity encourages students to reflect on their personal growth and achievements throughout the school year. This visual and interactive activity allows students to write their accomplishments or experiences on apple-shaped cut-outs and attach them to a classroom tree display. The colourful, thematic design supports social-emotional learning and helps foster a sense of pride and belonging within the classroom community.
Learning goals
- We are learning to identify and practise emotional responses.
- We are learning to use comprehension strategies to find literal and inferred meaning in texts.
Curriculum alignment
Identify and practise emotional responses that account for own and others’ feelings
ACELY1660 8.4 Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning about key events, ideas and information in texts that they listen to, view and read by drawing on growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features ACHASSI034 8.4 Pose questions about past and present objects, people, places and eventsAustralian Curriculum covers QLD / SA / WA / NT / TAS / ACT.
Differentiation
Modifications
• For Students Needing Support:
o Pre-Written Prompts: Provide sentence starters such as “I am proud because…” or “One thing I learned this year is…”.
o Guided Reflection: Work one-on-one or in small groups to help students articulate their achievements.
o Visual Reminders: Use example apples displayed to inspire ideas and guide students.
• For Students Ready for a Challenge:
o Detailed Reflections: Encourage students to write more in-depth responses about how they overcame challenges or what specific skills they gained.
o Peer Sharing: Pair students to share their growth stories with each other before adding them to the tree.
o Creative Additions: Ask students to decorate their apples
Extensions
• Class Storybook: Compile the completed apples into a class book showcasing the growth of each student over the year.
• Presentation Activity: Allow students to present their reflections in front of the class, building confidence and communication skills.
• Goal Setting: Use this activity as a bridge to set goals for the next term or year, linking past growth to future aspirations.
• Seasonal Theme Adaptations: Modify the tree display to reflect different seasons or celebrations (e.g., a spring theme).