 First grade students at Riverside Elementary School in Brainerd celebrated Halloween in a unique way yesterday. Students were able to celebrate the holiday while also learning something along the way. With this week's Golden Apple, a reporter Rachel Johnson has more. One scary pumpkin head, go! Learning while having a little fun was what Halloween Day at Riverside Elementary School was all about. They've been having a great time. We've had to take a couple of times to take deep breaths because we get super excited. First graders at the elementary have the unique opportunity to celebrate with a fun tradition of Halloween stations. The students rotated through six different classrooms throughout the day, all featuring a different and unique Halloween themed activity. There is roll a pumpkin where students roll dice, add up the number, and then they make a shape for the pumpkin. There is bingo, there is a skeleton art project, and then there's also some book making that they're doing too. We have an art project, we have candy corn math where they're doing graphing activities and equations. We of course threw in a Halloween bingo just to get some prizes and candy out there. Each activity is specifically chosen to be fun, yet educational. This is a unique thing for first grade. We started doing it a couple of years ago because each teacher was taking on trying to do all of these stations by themselves all day long, and so then we're like, hey, firefighters, we work together and every person is now taking one station and we're all rotating. On Halloween, when many students have a lot of energy, the teachers look forward to the opportunity to step outside of the usual routine. I think it's good for them to just let loose a little bit. We have our expectations and we've been working so hard the last eight, nine weeks, so it gives them a chance to kind of just enjoy themselves and celebrate with their classmates and meet other teachers and students as well. I think it's important to be able to celebrate and get together and do something fun and different than just like your normal routine and but still involve academics. Kindergarteners at Riverside are looking forward to first grade when it will be their turn to participate in the Halloween activities. Reporting from Brainerd with this week's Golden Apple, Rachel Johnson, Lakeland News. Riverside Elementary School is located next to the Mississippi River in downtown Brainerd and is home to approximately 600 kindergarten through fourth graders. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.