Red Ribbon Week

For Red Ribbon week, my school always has fun dress up days.  This year here is the list:
Monday - PJ day - Be cozy and safe, don't use drugsTuesday - Sunglasses day - Be cool and don't use drugsWednesday - Halloween or Orange day - Say Boo to drugsThursday - Crazy Hat and Hair day - It's crazy to use drugsFriday - School Spirit colors day - Have spirit and don't use drugs
We had to create a door decoration and this year I found this on TPT.  I knew I had to do it with all the superhero crazed kids in my class.  

Each grade level at our school also has specific lessons that we need to cover to help reinforce the meaning behind Red Ribbon week.
For 4th grade here is our breakdown:

Lesson 1 - Organs of the body - The importance of the different ones

Lesson 2 - Dangers of Medicine

Lesson 3 - Alcohol

Lesson 4 - Tobacco

Lesson 5 - Marijuana, Cocaine, Inhalants

Lesson 6 - Advertising - How it can be misleading

Lesson 7 - Saying No
I teach these in different ways.
First, I have my kiddos make a mini book using a sheet of red construction paper folded in half with 2 sheets of copy paper folded inside.  They use one staple to hold it together.  ONE staple!!!
On the outside cover they glue the alliteration of "Red Ribbon Reflections" and their name.
Page 1:  They do a brainstorm of what they know about being drug free.  
Page 2 & 3: Lesson 1 - OrgansThey draw the outline of a human body and as we talk about the importance of the different organs they draw and label.  The corresponding page then has a brainstorm list of different ways we can keep our bodies healthy.
Pages 4 & 5: Lesson 4 - Alcohol & Lesson 5 - Terrible TrioI share some facts for them to write down - especially the short and long term effects of doing these things.  I know they have heard similar things before so my goal is to scare them enough of the consequences of messing with things that can and will hurt them.
Page 6: Lesson 6 - AdvertisingWe talk about how advertising is geared to make someone want to buy something (it also ties into our business unit) and in their books they draw an ad to be healthy.
Page 7: Lesson 7 - Say NoWe practice saying no to different situations, and then they write a little play in their little book to show comprehension.
Page 8 - ReflectionsI want to know the things they think are the most important.  They have to write me a paragraph sharing their hearts.
When the book is completed, I collect and give them a completion/participation grade.  It goes under health on the report card.
I'll update after Thursday to show how our door and booklets turned out...