100 Students in Fourth Grade Learn Life Lessons

“It was smiles all day” said Sue Jackson, Pioneer Path social worker.

And it showed as a flood of 100 fourth graders in yellow shirts ran through a human tunnel made up of their parents.

On April 9, these students participated in Operation S.T.A.R.

“If it weren’t for parent support, it wouldn’t happen,” Jackson said.

S.T.A.R. stands for Student’s Trusting and Relating. It was founded on the belief that every human being has the right to make sound decisions regarding his or her life, based on accurate information and understanding of one’s self.

S.T.A.R. seeks to bring together 4th grade students and caring adults to develop a trusting relationship and provide a framework for understanding one’s self and others. The program also strives to teach students those skills that develop healthy and peer relationships, resist negative peer pressures and promote positive decision making. 

Other topics covered in the event were respecting the feelings and views of others, viewing yourself positively and resisting pressures of drugs and alcohol.

Sue Wunderlich, 4th grade teacher at PP and organizer of S.T.A.R., said it was a fun-filled day and the kids were very excited. This year’s themes was “Incredible Me.”

Wunderlich started with S.T.A.R. in 1993 as a facilitator and than helped the social worker at the time. Now she heads up the entire show.

S.T.A.R. is a spin-off of Operation Snowball or Operation Snowflake.

Operation Snowball is an international alcohol, tobacco and other drug use prevention program focusing on leadership development to empower youth to lead drug-free lives. Operation Snowflake is a peer leadership training program designed to help middle school students cope positively with the problems and pressures of growing up. 

S.T.A.R. used to be open to both 3rd and 4th graders, but it got to be too much, Wunderlich said.  So now it has been limited to just 100 fourth graders. 

“I wish more could participate, but there isn’t enough volunteers to assist,” Wunderlich said. “We spent many months putting this together. The parents who volunteer even use their own creativity in their groups.”

During the course of the event, the student were divided into teams and facilitated by parents or teachers. Each group created a team name and engaged in activities to learn about each other, self esteem, self respect and positive choices.

The big highlight for the students of S.T.A.R. was the warm fuzzies.

Warm fuzzies are strips of yarn in array of colors tied into a ball and worn as a necklace. A string is pulled out and given to someone when a compliment is made. That string is than tied onto the necklace.

Wunderlich asked parents to fill out a “warm fuzzy” note and give it to their child.

“It was very rewarding,” said Wunderlich.