Some of Disney’s most famous characters were visited by Beechwood Elementary School Thursday and Friday.

Moana, Woody, Simba and more were on hand to take parents and other members of the community through a tour of the school and show off what the students are learning through the Leader in Me curriculum.

The theme at Beechwood this year is Disney and each grade picked a movie from Lion King to Finding Nemo and even Cadet Kelly as their theme for the year.

During Thursday and Friday’s leadership days, each grade set up booth and explained one of the seven habits to their visitors.

From the start with the welcome and introductions, to the tours and activities at each stop, the entire program was student-led as children as young as pre-K and as old as sixth grade stepped into leadership roles.

“It gives the public and the community a chance to see what’s actually going on in the school,” Beechwood principal David Adams said. “The biggest component that most schools are missing is that parent component. The Leader in Me starts at the school, starts with the children, goes home to the parents and then goes to the community after that.”

Each of the seven habits was demonstrated through a different activity or a song performed by the students. Think win, win was explained by the chess club talking about how they work together to improve and seek first to understand, then to be understood was explained through an old fashioned game of telephone.

In one stop, visitors also had the chance to talk to students and see the leadership binder each student uses to track his or her progress.

The students had to audition for the speaking roles, which included introducing each of the seven habits and two students who served as MCs for the welcome.

“I think it is a good thing watching how excited they get over learning the new stuff and being able to interact with the parents,” Candice Hicks, who has a second-grader at Beechwood and attended leadership day, said. “It gives them something different to do. I think it is something they look forward to. She (her daughter) enjoys doing this. She enjoys all the habits and she talks about them at home and gets excited when they do this every year because she gets to help with it.”

The leadership days are held at each school as a way to enable to community to see the impact Leader in Me is having on the students. The students have to take ownership of the habits and their roles in order for the day to be successful and show what they are learning.

“I like being a tour guide because I get to tour people around the whole school and it’s a big responsibility,” Travis Giles, a fourth-grader who was one of the tour guides, said.  “I think they get how important our school is and how we deal with it.”

Redwood Elementary, which was recently named the third lighthouse school in the Vicksburg Warren School District, held its leadership day Monday morning and Bowmar Elementary, which is also a lighthouse school, will hold its today from 9:30-11 a.m.