Welcome back to my blog post! It has been a pleasure to share our project with you. As we come to an end, we like to share some of our experiences when creating this project. Camyeron and I worked hard to make this reading age-appropriate and useful to the kids. Connecting the tenets of transcendentalism to Disney movies is a very useful tool to introduce the new material to the students. We discovered how fun and valuable it could be for the students to learn about transcendentalism. 

Throughout this project, we were worried if the material might be difficult for fifth and sixth graders. We then realize how Disney movies could better deliver the message. By making connections to Disney movies, students can have an easier time understanding the principles of transcendentalism. For example, when students are reading about the principle of non-conformity, they can connect it to Merida from Brave and how she was going against the social norm. 

I believe that it is beneficial for students to learn about transcendentalism. When they learn the tenets of transcendentalism, they learn to be self-reliant and to trust their intuition. They also learn about the importance of nature and simplicity. When working on this project, I used the text “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I researched that he was the leader of the transcendentalist. He wrote many influential essays expressing his thoughts and beliefs on the natural world and humanity.