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Show rmmmii 1 Rocky Mountain Elementary Helps to Strengthen Families "' .' " " .-c ..'3; v , ' Si.. - ..-'ii. - Students had the opportunity to make conversation bags at lunch to use during dur-ing their dinner to get to know family members better. Rocky Mountain Elementary 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 family 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 Nintendo," 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. Monday Mon-day students were encouraged to make and eat dinner together as a family. They had the opportunity 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 cooking cook-ing utensil drawer such tongs, serving spoons, beaters, spatulas, 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-free Family 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, students stu-dents watched "Chained to the Television" on www.intermoun-tainlive.org. www.intermoun-tainlive.org. 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 Michelle Mi-chelle Stevenson stated, "The one thing I really like about Family 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 trying 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 Neighborhood 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 encouraged encour-aged to visit their family meeting meet-ing spot to be sure everyone knew where to meet in case of a fire, earthquake, or other emergency. 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 drawing draw-ing for prizes. |