Thursday October 10

Today was the grade 4/5 Dare to Care day! The students were introduced to Dare to Care with an assembly in the morning. They learned that the program is about knowing what a bully is, and how to deal with situations that include bullying. Students also learned that in every school, including Bridlewood, that there are bullies, caring minorities and targets. These three groups of people make the tips of a diamond and are the smallest populations. The largest group is known as the Silent Majority. People in this group see things happen but do not do anything to stop it. By not doing anything to stop the bullying, they are just as involved. Students learned through Dare to Care that we want the school community to be more like a circle with the majority of people being the Caring Majority. The Caring Majority are people that stand up and help the targets go to a trusted adult for support. Students learned that there are skills to learn in order to defend against bullies. HA HA SO is an acronym for this tool belt of skills. Help, Assert yourself, Humour, Avoid, Self-talk and Own it. Students were given examples and made skits to demonstrate what to do in bullying situations. The skits included a bully a target, teacher and a caring majority. Students were put into groups of four where they practiced being each of these roles with a cue card for the target. Each group had time to share their skit in front of the classes. It was a great program to help teach skills and ways to deal with bullies.

 In class, we learned about the three parts of the brain that make up the limbic system. This system includes the Prefrontal Cortex, Amygdala, and the Hippocampus. The students learned that the amygdala is the response center that reacts to all stimuli. This part of the brain is responsible for sending messages to the prefrontal cortex where reasoning and decision making take place. If the sensory is threatening or dangerous the amygdala will not send messages but instead put our bodies into fight, flight or freeze status. Thinking and reasoning are no longer used, its just reactions. So if you react to something in a really impulsive way or improper way, you probably didn't get enough 'think time' for your amygdala to calm down in order to allow your prefrontal cortex to make a wise decision.

Reminders:
- tomorrow the school is closed for a PD day
- Monday is Thanksgiving and the school is closed
- student picture orders are due tomorrow......you can order online. Return photos on re-take day if         you want a re-take
- Wed. Oct. 16 is our field trip to Ann and Sandy Cross.....email me if you are able to volunteer please...if you volunteered last time could you please confirm with me that you are able to volunteer this time too? Thank you.

 - see you Tuesday

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