Fulton Elementary School                       District Homepage

Don't Be A Bad Ant!

   On a recent afternoon, the students in Ms. Ruoff's and Mrs. Homan's classes at Fulton had a very special visitor who shared one of his favorite books. The visitor was Ephrata Chief of Police William L. Harvey and the book he read was Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg.
   The visit was arranged by Ms. Ruoff as a reward for the good work that her students had been doing. She also wanted to introduce them to a community member, such as a police officer, to get them more comfortable with them. Perhaps they might be a bit scared of a police officer when they see him in his car or walking along the street. She believes now it is more likely they will view that officer as a friend and someone they could approach for help if they are in need. Also, the students got to learn that adults outside of the school setting like to read too!
   After Officer Harvey read the story, he answered students' questions about his job. He was able to share with them some "bad ant" stories from his experiences and taught them how not to be a bad ant.
   Finally, Officer Harvey worked with two students and two teachers to demonstrate the "Bad Situation Dance" for the class.  The dance was “Stop, don’t touch, run away and tell an adult”.  The students and teachers acted out the bad situation dance and while it gave everyone a laugh, it also taught them what to do to be safe.  Everyone took a few minutes and got up to practice the dance.