“Your Future is Key. Be Drug Free.”
Coming up with new Red Ribbon Week Activities each year can be fun but challenging. This year, I wanted to do something a little differently. I started with the usual drug awareness lessons in class using videos from www.naturalhigh.org. If you haven’t been to this website, be sure to start with the video from Jon Sundt, the founder of Natural High so that you can get the backstory of how the website came about. During our lesson, we watch videos from celebrities talking about their natural highs as they recount the reasons why they chose not to use drugs. Between videos, students brainstorm and share their own activities that give them that feeling. At the end, they think of things that they would like to try that they haven’t tried yet. I end by challenging them to try new things.
After the lesson, I passed out coloring contest papers and promised candy and prizes to the winners. We really didn’t expect to get as many entries as we did. Entries have been pouring in all week. Middle school kids really do enjoy coloring. Give them a reason, and they will gladly color for you. It’s such a stress reducing activity, that I try to use some element of it in most of my lessons. Check out some of the entries that we received. You can get the free download for this coloring contest from my TPT store here.
