October: Positive Choices
My October Bulletin Board and Office Door:

Red Ribbon Week Bulletin Board

Red Ribbon Week Office Door

October's counseling theme was set to correlate with Red Ribbon Week.  Our school always celebrates Red Ribbon Week the last week of October and is a K-12 initiative.  Like most schools, each day of Red Ribbon Week has a theme.

Red Ribbon Week Dress-up Days

In the elementary, students have the opportunity to dress-up for the day's theme and receive a sticker emphasizing the daily theme's message.  We have been passing out Red Ribbon Week stickers for the past three years, and the students love it!  I think the stickers have been an inexpensive way to better promote the week's message to make healthy choices.  Student and staff excitement and participation is what makes the week successful, and I want to draw as much attention to the cause as I can.

To inform parents and families of the week's events and mission, information about Red Ribbon Week is posted on the School's Webpage, highlighted in our principal's weekly newsletter, and is displayed on my personal counseling page.  A parent letter is also send home in mid October.

Red Ribbon Week Parent Letter 2015

I have been utilizing the morning announcements to conduct school-wide lessons for many of my initiatives.  During Red Ribbon Week, the morning announcements are used to share daily Red Ribbon Week lessons and reminders.  The announcement lessons have been a great way involve the whole school, and create a supportive environment.

Red Ribbon Week Announcement Lessons

Tobacco prevention is not my area of expertise, so I enjoy contacting local mental health agencies to help me facilitate classroom lessons.  The speakers that are brought in to teach  the lessons have learning resources and equipment that I would not be able to acquire.  One cool component to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade lessons are real pig lungs.  The speaker always brings in 2 sets of pig lungs; one set is healthy, and the other set has been artificially exposed to tobacco.  The difference between the lungs are astonishing.  The "smoker" lung is full of disease, black in color, and does not hold air. The healthy lung is pink, expands to over twice it's resting size, and releases air slowly.  The students are able to see concrete evidence of how tobacco can negatively effect their quality of life.

While this lesson is awesome, it can be emotional for students who have parents or loved ones in their family who smoke.  The students that are upset are given special stickers that can be placed on cigarette or chew containers.  The sticker includes information and resources to quit using tobacco.

Tobacco Prevention Sticker