Happy Friday!

 Our Zero the Hero scrolls now have numbers to 50 and are about the same height as most students.

 Quiet reading :)

 Blowing bubbles with our buddies on a beautiful day.

 alphabet beanbag toss game

Question of the day: favorite bear (yesterday) and a survey about bats.  Did your child tell you anything about bats?

balloons, bears

 Lots of balloon pictures.  We tried to bounce and balance while sitting and standing, with our hands, fingers, elbows, feet...

 Then we balanced a balloon between our stomachs, backs, and heads

 one last giggle-inducing game: trying to keep the balloon in the circle by kicking/hitting it while lying down

 Today was bear day, but the camera didn't come out until late afternoon.  Our bears did almost everything with us, even went to music class and some to recess.  And we did things with them, like hibernating in dens (under tables).  Here I believe some bears are learning about the life cycle of frogs.

 We had to read some cards to put them in order so we could make bear paw prints.

 Yummy!

 Here is the whole class: bears and humans.  1 picture shows all the faces, the other is more clear.  I look forward to having full use of two hands again.  Soon, I hope!

 One student even dressed like a black bear.

 The bears all stayed overnight for a sleepover.  They're not hibernating though - they're playing!  Tomorrow morning your children get to find their bears and figure out what they were doing...

I have the sweetest class

 One of my sweet students brought me cookies and a picture this morning.  

The whole class was great today.  One child fell right after recess and I walked her to the office to get an ice pack, telling the rest of the class to go in the classroom and get out their snacks.  When I came back, they were all sitting down, eating and talking quietly.  :)  

After lunch we had a student read a book about Big Bugs to us.  She did a great job.  Later when I read a book, another student held all the pages as I turned them.

 Here are a few of our centers for the week: beads (fine motor skills)

 building with blocks

 and writing signs

 

(school is broken)

Coloring (more fine motor skills)

 Today we started Drawing Club.  This is something I started last year.  During free choice centers we do an extra drawing activity - just one more way to get kids drawing/writing.  Calling it a club just makes it sound cool.  Technically it's optional, though it will be mandatory for a few students |(but they don't know that yet :) We had 100% voluntary participation this time.  Since I'm not all that skilled at left-handed drawing, today we had an illustrator, Rich Davis, show us how to draw a doodle bug.  Hooray for the projector.  :)

 We also pulled out the balance board for some gross motor fun.
 
My apologies for some of the picture quality.  I'm still working on the one-handed thing.

Balloons!

I love the letter Bb because there are so many wonderful things you can do: bears, bats, butterflies, balloons, bingo, beach balls, beanbags... the only hard part is deciding which activities to do. This week we mostly stuck to bears, with a brief foray into bats (through books) and bubbles and today was BALLOONS.

Given the nature of the activities, I was impressed with how well the children tried to stay in their own space.
We tried lots of different ways to keep the balloon up in the air. Left hand, right hand, switching hands, one finger, hitting it and turning around before hitting it again, setting it like in volleyball:
bumping it by yourself and then with a partner
Keeping it up without using our hands:
A balancing act! We also moved around the room balancing the balloon between fronts and backs.This was the challenging activity at the end: in groups try to keep the balloon up (with feet or hands) without moving from your spot.Not a bear picture, but cute enough to share: children reading a wordless book about a baby bear:

The Bears Are Having a Sleepover!

While the children are away,
The bears will play!

The sleepover is going well; the bears are having fun, although they did make a bit of a mess. Tomorrow your children get to find their bears and write about what they were doing. And no, there will not be a sleepover for children at school :)