4th Grade - Red Ribbon Week Lesson 2015

Please read my previous post about the purpose of our Red Ribbon Week lessons before reading this post.

The lesson began with the students completing a pretest to assess what they know about drugs, alcohol, and tobacco.

Next, students viewed a video entitled Your Body, Your Health, and Drugs published by Cerebellum Corporations.  While watching the video, students learned the difference between healthy and unhealthy choices as well as some of the dangers of using drugs, alcohol, and tobacco.  When the video was over, the students took the posttest and we discussed the answers to the questions above.

After we discussed each statement, I posed the question "What is peer pressure?"  Students discussed this question in their groups,  In order to illustrate the concept of peer pressure, the students watched a clip from an episode of Full House in which Stephanie is offered a cigarette while in the 6th grade.  Students were asked to take note of the tactics the girls used to try to get Stephanie to smoke as well as the steps Stephanie took to get herself out of the situation.

We discussed the reasons why peer pressure works.  We discussed the fact that peer pressure does not only pertain to drugs, alcohol, and tobacco.  Negative peer pressure occurs any time a peer tries to get you to do something that you do not want to do or that you know is not right such as calling someone a name, watching a movie you know you are not supposed to watch, playing a video game you know you are not supposed to play, etc.  We discussed effective strategies for dealing with peer pressure and students were given an opportunity to think about how they would deal with peer pressure in various situation.

Our lesson ended by discussing three of The 7 Habits of Happy Kids by Sean Covey.  Students were encouraged to discuss today's lesson with their parents and ask them any questions they may have on the topic.  Students were also reminded that I am available to discuss any concerns they  have on the topic and were reminded how to make an appointment to meet with me.

Thank you for your support of the school counseling program.  I know this is a sensitive topic, but it is one we must teach our students about so they have the knowledge and the skills to make safe, healthy choices.