By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–Friday, Oct. 30 concluded a busy week for Helena Intermediate School as the school celebrated the conclusion of Red Ribbon Week while also hosting Parenting Day.

Parents of elementary students had the opportunity to attend two separate parent sessions in the HIS media center where they gained advice on parenting, especially when it comes to education.

The first session dealt with digital citizenship and how parents and students should be responsible using the Internet with tips on when and when not to disclose certain information online.

Helena Intermediate Counselor Renita Matthews and Gifted Resource Teacher Shelli Abernathy both helped lead the sessions to help parents.

“We try to find topics that we feel are current topics of concern for parents and provide an opportunity for them to come and get information and ask questions,” said Matthews. “We will get their feedback at the end and that helps us to see if there are other questions or other topics that they’re interested in that we can incorporate in future sessions.”

The afternoon session was about resilience and overcoming obstacles that included a project with pipe cleaners.

“We did an activity where they had to build a structure as a team and they had to figure out how they could make the tallest structure using pipe cleaners,” said Matthews. “As they were doing the activity, she (Abernathy) would stop them at certain points and change a rule such as only using one hand or not being able to speak to each other and the goal was to see if you could be resilient.”

In addition to the parenting sessions, everyone at HIS was dressed in pajamas for the annual Readathon Day. Each classroom invited parents throughout the day to come and participate.

LifeSouth also hosted a blood drive at the school for anyone interested in giving blood.

“I’m just happy when we get parents to come out because we want to partner with them as part of what we want to do with our counseling program,” said Matthews.