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Show 6 - JTIMPANOGOS TIMES November 17,2010 rmmmii Rocky Mountain Elementary Helps to Strengthen Families "' .' " " -c ..'3; v , ' Si.. - - Students had the opportunity to make conversation bags at lunch to use dur-ing their dinner to get to know family members better. Rocky Mountain Elemen-tary celebrated Family Week. November 8 through 12. Family Week not only went nicely with the school's yearly theme "We Are Family", but it encouraged students to get back to traditions that strengthen fam-ily ties. Jennifer Nelson, from the PTA, volunteered because she believes in helping families draw closer together so they can get to know each other better and have more fun together. "Society would be better if families were closer," she stated. "I hope the students learn that being with their families is fun and that they can do a lot of things with their families and not just try to be with their friends or play Ninten-do," she added. She noted she would like the students to learn those basic concepts that maybe we are losing because we are such an electronic generation. Monday through Friday the students were given activities to do with their families. Mon-day students were encouraged to make and eat dinner together as a family. They had the op-portunity to make conversation bags at lunch to use during their dinner to get to know family members better. Students were given the idea to gather various utensils from their kitchen cook-ing utensil drawer such tongs, serving spoons, beaters, spatu-las, etc. and put them in a large paper bag. As they set the table for dinner they were to leave off the knives, forks, and spoons. Instead, they were to have each person in their family draw two items out of the bag to eat their dinner with. Tuesday was TV-fre- e Fam-ily DayFamily Game Night. Students were encouraged to turn off the electronics such as TV, video, and computer games for one whole day. To get the kids enthused about this, stu-dents watched "Chained to the Television" on www.intermoun-tainlive.or- g. Principal Michelle Stevenson and the "dream team", which consisted of 12 sixth grade students, threw a TV off of the roof of the school. Students gathered outside with anticipation and chanted "Throw it down!" The "dream team" also manned stations during lunch where children were taught how to play games. Principal Mi-chelle Stevenson stated, "The one thing I really like about Fam-ily Week is I think it brings back traditions like games. One of the things we do at Rocky Mountain during inside days is we are try-ing to get the kids to play games. A lot of the kids don't know how to play the games like Chutes and Ladders, Connect Four, and Candy Land." Wednesday was Neighbor-hood ServiceFamily Meeting Spot day. Students, along with their families, performed an act of service for one of their neighbors. Students placed "Secret Service" signs, which they made at lunch time, on the door of those they served. On their way to their neighbor's home, families were encour-aged to visit their family meet-ing spot to be sure everyone knew where to meet in case of a fire, earthquake, or other emer-gency. On Thursday students wrote thank you notes to give to someone who inspired them to be a better person by their words or actions and Friday students concluded the week with a Family Skate Night at Classic Skating. Students who turned in their Family Week card were entered in the draw-ing for prizes. t Pleasant Grove Marching Band Earns Third Place in the Mission Viejo Competition I - The Pleasant Grove High School Marching Band performed on Main Street in Disneyland, Anaheim, California. Photo courtesy ol'Auslin Rushlon by Danica Baird This school year Pleas-ant Grove High School's Marching Band has earned numerous honors for their spectacular performances. On October 12, the Marching Band competed at Brigham Young University. They surpassed last year's impressive high score earn-ing 820 points. Twenty-on- e bands from Utah competed, including the renowned American Fork band. Senior Zach Price said, "I was astonished when we earned 820. To end on such an amazing note my senior year was just fantastic." The Marching Band also competed at the Bridgerland Invitational in Logan on October 3 . Over twenty-nin- e marching bands from Idaho and Utah performed in this competition. Facing off against these impressive bands, our band earned sec-ond place with a superior rat-ing of 815 and brought home their first award of the year. Price said, "I couldn't believe we got second place. When they announced third place, I felt so discour-aged. I thought there was no way we could do better. When they announced we had earned second, 1 was stunned." The Marching Band also received good news when senior Zach Macken-zie was awarded First Chair in the All-Sta- band. With these notable achievements, Pleas-ant Grove High School's Marching Band left for their annual Band Tour. On November 3 through 7, they traveled to Cali-fornia to compete in the prestigious Mission Viejo Marching Band Competi-tion as well as performing on Main Street at Disney-land in Anaheim, Califor-nia. At the competition they performed a mix of "Piano Man" and "We didn't Start the Fire," a combination of "My Life" and "Only the Good Die Young," "Air' (Dublinesque)," and "Just the Way You Are." Their spectacular performance resulted in a third place tro-phy. Senior Austin Rushton said, "I felt really proud and really happy about what the band has accomplished this year. We worked so hard all year. I couldn't believe we earned third place." As the marching band season has concluded, overall the band performed extremely well this year and has left a strong legacy for next year's band to fol-low. 111! iknv mM iwiiT iiw !!M iWWJ f t m iwii "J: JJC ' i-- ' i. A. ''' t v V IS' ! hl'i I ! J 4 . pXJ4 11 ill! p3 U-- ( ;M ' . f , V-- izz- - mU,x --iS' l v j $ v u ' : ' " i ;i . w -- , I, , . . . " iat--i ,. A. " " , ( X M - Ik ' r" ' v " f y - v - It :. ; s-- 1 ; r 5 ' f I p v, ' .. .'x.r , m. - |