A fun-filled week

This week was full of lots of fun and action! To start, I met with the PK children on Monday morning. We are working very hard on the word Freeze. When the teacher says "freeze," the children need to stop their feet, look at the teacher, and stay quiet so they can listen to directions. You might want to practice this game at home. We tried playing while we were sitting on the circle; we played the drums with our hands and feet until we heard freeze. Then we tried it while moving in different ways around the gym: walking, running, skipping, tiptoeing, etc. The next activity we tried was moving to music. We listened to two songs: "This is the Way We Do It" and " The Bop." The children listened to the words of the music and moved according to what was sung. They did absolutely awesome! Finally we had a few minutes to play with some hula hoops and squishy soccer balls.

The JK children had an exciting class this week. We went on a bear hunt in our gym. Of course we all agreed there are no real bears in our school, only teddy bears! Ha!
We went down the road, over the bridge, through the wheat field, up and down a tree, across the river, and into a dark cave. Then we took a picture of the bear and ran all the way back home, of course passing all of the scenery we saw on the way out. Finally, we slammed the door and locked it up! Whhhheeeewww! But don't worry, we weren't scared since it was only pretend! We also got a chance to work on some simple ball skills, and we will continue next week... watch for more! HEY, CHECK OUT THE PICTURES IN MY LINK TO THE RIGHT!!! ALL JK FUN!

In first grade and second grade this week, we began our throwing and catching unit. The skills we are working on are underhand and overhand throwing, and catching. The children played a game called flip-the-cup where they try to flip a dome cone over by underhand throwing a bean bag at it. They practice by themselves and then played against a partner. I also introduced the overhand throw and we included catching in several of our games. Practice throwing and catching at home to reinforce this lifetime skills.

The third and fourth graders finished up their volleyball unit this week. We played "real" volleyball and learned several of the rules including 3 hits per team, one hit per person, rotating, service position, and a few net rules. The children really showed their positive sportsmanship, and we all agreed it would be more enjoyable if we just played for fun instead of keeping score. We learned that in my classroom when we play competitive games, you are allowed to keep score if you choose, but the score has to stay in your own head and cannot come out of your mouth. Our next unit for these two grade levels is tennis. We will be working on the drop-hit, forehand, backhand, and the volley. The children are allowed to bring their own rackets, but we do have enough for everyone.