Project HOPE

Excited to share a wonderful experience that my third graders are setting in place. After the tragedy of Newtown, Connecticut, my students were solefully sadden and shocked. We discussed how sad and frightened the students and families must have been. I wanted to help my students find hope and spread hope to others.  After watching a TED talk from Candy Chang: Before I die I want to... I waned to create an opportunity for my student to share their thoughts and hopes.  During November, on a biking, hiking, running trail in Fullerton, CA, residents hung a jar with tags and a prompt "I'm thankful for ..." Visitors that rode, ran, or walked by could pick up a tag write their comments and hang them on the tree. It was stunning to see on Thanksgiving day this wonderful tree FILLED with thankful tags.  Comments such as, "I'm thankful to be cancer free for 6 years.", "I'm thankful for my family and their health." "I'm thankful to have such a wonderful family." The tree brought such happiness to anyone passing by.  It stayed up for weeks and many people were able to enjoy and share their thankful posts.

I wanted such a place for my students and our school.  We needed something that would help us understand and find hope in the world.  The idea combined and Project H.O.P.E. was created.  Happiness, Opens, People's, Eyes! My students composed simple sentences that started with, "I hope someday I will...." The beautiful lines were typed into an amazing iPad app called Haiku Deck.  My students created these stunning simple projects that spoke of such hope and joy.

I have the Haiku Deck presentation I created as an example here:

Haiku Deck- Project H.O.P.E.

Please come back and watch some of their work that I will be posted soon.  I hope you find a way to spread happiness as well.  It has lightened the hearts of my students and I sincerely hope it lightens yours as well.