Millions Will Participate in the Annual Turnoff week and 139 kids of those millions will be from Rainbow Mountain. We think it’s always time to PLAY! So we choose as our team name; PLAY – Positive, Learning, Active, Youth.
Rainbow Mountain Children’s School will join thousands of schools, libraries, and community groups nationwide in a coordinated effort to encourage millions of Americans to turn off televisions, computers, and video games for seven days and turn on the world around them. Screen-Free Week is a chance for children to read, play, think, create, be more physically active, and to spend more time with friends and family.
“Screen-Free Week is a much needed respite from the screen media dominating the lives of so many children” said Renee Jackson, fifth/sixth grade teacher. “Now, more than ever, it’s imperative that we help children discover the joys of life beyond screens.”
On average, preschool children spend over four and a half hours a day consuming screen media, while older children spend over seven hours a day including multitasking. Excessive screen time is linked to a number of problems for children, including childhood obesity, poor school performance, and problems with attention span.
Screen-Free Week (formerly TV-Turnoff) is coordinated by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a national advocacy organization devoted to reducing the impact of commercialism on children. Since the Week’s founding in 1994, it has been celebrated by millions of children and their families worldwide. For more information, visit www.screenfree.org.
Rainbow was a fantastic Mardi Gras Krewe at the front of the whole parade with our Rainbow Goddess, the big blue bird, the sun and moon, and lots of sweet children flying around as butterflies.
Yesterday, Kinobe, came to Rainbow. He spent time with first, sixth and fourth/fifth grades. Saturday he will play with his band at Rainbow’s Halloween Harvest Hoedown. Show starts at noon.
That’s exactly what we’re fostering at Rainbow and we are now part of the Ashoka Changemaker Network. Rainbow is one of 44 schools across the country to have this honor, because of our innovation and desire to exact social change.
Ashoka Changemaker Schools www.startempathy.org
We became an Ashoka Changemaker school because we are committed to addressing the needs of our community through developing empathy, teamwork, problem-solving and leadership skills in our students.
As Bill Drayton, founder and CEO of Ashoka, says:
Once a young person has had a dream, built a team and changed his or her world, he or she has the power to express love and respect in action. He or she will become a changemaker for life – a real contributor in a world where value no longer comes from efficiency in repetition, as it has for millennia.
Ashoka works to identify social entrepreneurs around the world. The world needs people who have the mindset for problem-solving capabilities. The Changemaker initiative looks for schools in the U.S. and abroad who exemplify these ideals. In conjunction with schools and leaders around the world, people can become changemakers.
The goal is “Everyone a Changemaker” – a world where people can quickly identify social issues and effectively address them – because they have the knowledge, freedom, and a support network to bring about needed change.
Millions Will Participate in the Annual Turnoff week and 139 kids of those millions will be from Rainbow Mountain. We think it’s always time to PLAY! So we choose as our team name; PLAY – Positive, Learning, Active, Youth.
