Red Ribbon Week

This week was Red Ribbon Week at school. We had a great week with the master plan in place! Each day we had a different dress up day and I was excited to sport my Gator jersey to school, especially on the eve of the Fl vs Ga game. Our class put red cups in the fence to spell "Just Say No". Unfortunately, a few days after all of our hard work and problem solving (the cups kept falling out) we had a pretty bad storm and most of the cups were knocked out of the fence. The day we went outside to fix them, there were district men out there picking up the cups. So, we didn't get to fix them. :( The kids could not believe that someone threw away "our cups". I think I told you about the art tag in a previous post. We were tagged last by a kindergarten class. They made us a powerpoint and came to our room and read it to us. I forget how little kindergarten kiddos are but they were so cute and my kids were excited to have them come visit us.

We were having a class discussion on how important it is to find something that you like to do so you don't get involved in drugs and I was amazed when one of my students asked, "What do drugs look like?" I realized how innocent these kids are compared to the kindergarten students I had in Florida. My kids in Florida were bringing lunch money in weed bags and knew what most drugs looked like. I had a few kids this year who knew what weed looked like but that's about it. I am so thankful for parents that keep their children sheltered. However, it is also important to talk to our kids about drugs, how they can hurt our lives and bodies, and what to do if they are ever offered drugs.

Part of my master plan is to have students earn back rewards. In order to earn back an award everybody in the class has to complete the mystery assignment for the week. To help the kids manage this without creating more work for myself, I have made a check sheet and they have to mark off their name when they turn in their work. This has made a huge difference in keeping up with missing assignments. Well, yesterday the mystery assignment was a Fraction Walk and everybody had turned it in! The class decided as a school family to earn back tickets. I give tickets for making the right choices, as well as incentive to bring in supplies for contests around the school (fundraiser, recycling drive, etc.). They were very proud to see that their hard work has paid off and I am glad to have an engaged class of students that want to learn again. I think their progress reports were a huge wake up call when they saw their grades. Here's to a great remainder of the year!