We Are Proud To Be Drug Free...Celebrating Red Ribbon Week

Every year toward the end of October, schools across the country have the opportunity to participate in the national "Red Ribbon Week" campaign, which is a week where students learn all about living a drug free and healthy lifestyle. "Red Ribbon Week" carries such an awesome message, however, it can sometimes be difficult at the elementary level to approach the topic of drugs and alcohol, especially if students do not yet have background knowledge. In order to start spreading this message in a kid friendly way, my principal and I worked together to come up with some fun ideas to get the students at my school involved in "Red Ribbon Week". This year, as in other years, each day of "Red Ribbon Week" had a drug free theme attached to it. For example:

Monday- "Orange you glad to be drug free?!" Everyone is encouraged to wear orange clothing to school.
Tuesday- "Sock it to drugs!" Everyone wears their craziest socks to school.
Wednesday- "Put a cap on drugs!" Everyone wears hats throughout the school day.
Thursday- "I'm a 'jean-ius', I'm drug free!" Everyone wears jeans to school.
Friday- "Team Up Against Drugs!" Everyone wears their favorite team jersey or t-shirt to school.

The kids and the staff were all encouraged to participate in each theme day, and the kids were really enthusiastic about it. Overall, it was a great way to spread the "drug free" message in a way that really got kids involved, as opposed to just talking about it.

As part of "Red Ribbon Week", I also ordered little gifts for each student in the school. On Tuesday, we handed out actual red ribbons (with an adhesive back), for students and staff to wear throughout the week. The message on the ribbon was "Celebrate Red Ribbon Week, Not Just a Week but For Life". On Wednesday, students each received a pencil with the same message printed on it. On Thursday, paper bracelets were handed out with "My future is bright, no drugs in sight!" printed on them. All of these awesome products were purchased from www.positiveredribbonweek.com.

I am lucky to have an awesome student council at my school. They were incredibly helpful in supporting "Red Ribbon Week" this year. Students involved in student council were asked to make posters with a positive "drug free" message on it. They were hung up all around the school as a way to keep spreading the message. The students really put a lot of extra time and effort into these posters, and seeing them hanging up all over the school has been really awesome.

Lastly, students signed a banner, which served as a school wide pledge. "NPE Is Proud To Be Drug Free!" Each class was asked to take some time throughout the week to come down and sign the poster as their promise to live a drug free life.

Overall, the week has been very successful. Hopefully, all students, starting in Kindergarten and reaching all the way through 5th grade (the highest grade level in my building), have gained a better awareness about living a drug free life, and hopefully they had fun getting there! :-)