LES carnival beats the winter blahs

The Libby Elementary School Carnival was the brainchild of Assistant Principal Scott Beagle and the Parents Council to further behavioral lessons and improve attendance, but it turned out to accomplish that and more.

The carnival, which was held on a Friday night, was tailored to reward students who displayed positive behavior while awarding them for their good attendance.

“January and February are kind of blah months for our kids with the weather and the time of year, so we put together a winter carnival,” Beagle said. “The kids earned tickets for all the games. Every day they earned a ticket in school when they displayed good behavior, good attitude and respect.”

The program began Monday, Feb. 3, and the school held the carnival on Friday, Feb. 28.

Children were able to use the tickets earned during the course of the month for games, such as balloon darts, a goldfish game, musical chairs, a cake walk, a basketball shoot, ring toss and bean-bag toss.

“It was all the typical carnival games,” Beagle said.

But the results were anything but typical.

“I’d say it was very successful,” Principal Ron Goodman said. “It was a Friday night. What do you do on Friday night in February and March? I think having opportunities for kids to be in the gym, to be in the building are great. Why not use the facility? It was the night of the NRA banquet, and we had a fantastic turnout.”

  The carnival, which was held in the evening, brought back about 300 students and their parents, which represents about half of the student enrollment.

“To get half of our students back here in the evening with their parents, I think it was extremely successful,” Beagle said. “Our discipline problems were down and our attendance was up. I think it was very successful.”

“We’ll definitely do it again,” Goodman said.

While teachers and some school staffers were on hand, most of the games were attended by volunteer high school students. Prizes for the games came from funds raised by the Parents Council.

“During our February and March, we have our own kind of March Madness here,” Goodman said. “It was a good release for the kids. We had the gym open for the older — fourth through sixth-grade — students. It was fun for our students.”