!yaD etisoppO

Our morning message was 'upside down' today. When we sang the "Good Morning Boogie", we sang Goodbye instead of hello. When we sang "Inright, Upright... Happy all the time" we did the actions opposite; that was hard, but it made us all laugh. And so Opposite Day begun.
We all shared the opposites we wore: backward shirts, backward shorts, mismatched shoes, long and short socks.
backward hat, black shoe/white sock, white shoe/black sock, backward/inside out shirts, more mismatched shoes, pigtail/no pigtail.
Not pictured: light and dark clothes, socks worn on hands...

We walked backward to our tables and tried to read our names backwards, read books about opposites, wrote a class opposite book, matched opposites, and played lots of opposite games. We played Opposite concentration, Lost my opposite, musical opposites (like musical chairs except no one gets out and there are picture cards taped to the chairs, so when the music stops you have to find the chair that shows the opposite of the card in your hand. Then switch cards and play again.), and Simon Says Opposite, also very tricky. Sorry - no pictures; I was too busy. Trust me, when I say we had a lot of fun.

We ended the day with a low five, and walking out the door backward. It was a great end to February.

I admit that I'm glad for a 'normal' day tomorrow. Then Friday will be Dr. Seuss day, as well as Kids BEneFIT.

Olympics

Today, because of the letter Oo, we had the air Olympics. And if you are wondering why we did air Olympics, it was for the simple reason that they are easiest to do inside (much simpler than skiing or swimming or gymnastics. Not quieter though!)

Our first event we had played before near the beginning of the year. Each child tried to blow a ping pong ball from one cup to another cup. We tried it four times and only one person got it all four times, and it was definitely not the teacher.

Our second event was a race. We practiced staying in our lane (this will come in handy when we get to Track Day at the end of March) as we tried to blow the ping pong ball all the way to the finish line. After each race, we said "Good job" to the winner and "Good try" to the other participants. 1 child had a minor meltdown, and another pouted about losing, but most of the children did a really good job of practicing good sportsmanship and had fun cheering for their friends.

Here is a picture from free choice centers. Several children chose to replay the events.
Video clip. It really was a lot of fun.

Our third, and final event was 'air hockey'. They're trying to blow the ball across the table but can only stop it by blowing it - no hands/bodies allowed. After each match, the participants shook hands and said "good game."
So, if you're ever bored at home, find a few ping pong balls and some masking tape, and have some Olympic fun!

A Smattering of Pictures

We usually look for our letter of the week in the morning message. This week is Oo - tricky little bugger. These are the words containing O that we found: boys, good, morning, how, you, overhead, story, okay, love. Do ANY of those make the short o sound? No. No wonder learning to read can be so challenging!
Yesterday we had some visitors: guinea pigs. They were quite a hit. This is the best kind of class pet to have - the kind that comes for half a day and then disappears. No feeding, no cleaning required.
So one of our morning centers was observing the animals and writing or drawing some scientific observations. I think only 2 children decided to draw. Everyone else used solely writing. That's one indication of our proximity to Spring: children are much more confident in their writing abilities (and I can read more of it :)
This student observed: "They like to hide and they can twitch their nose and guinea pigs can eat."

And a few pictures from center time this afternoon:
One student came and asked me, "Miss Vis, can centers be a little bit longer today? Because I need to use the bathroom and I don't want to miss it." Don't worry - we had plenty of time.