Bad day…followed by an excellent day!

6 hours of sunshine and laughter.
Today I was the PE teacher for grades K-4 at a Livonia elementary school. K-2 practiced “batting and running around the bases” and 3-4 played kickball. With some trial and error with the littl’uns, I found the best pattern for learning:
1-have the kids practice running around the bases about four times prior to actually having them come up to bat; that way they are far more likely to remember where they are supposed to go when I say, “Run!” Of course, there were still about 20% of them who just stood there or who ran after the ball that they had just hit. 🙂
2-choose 4 “fielders” and give them the task of retrieving all the balls, re-setting the T’s (in this case a cone inside a crate).
3-have 2 T’s set up so that more kids get to bat more often, leaving fewer of them in the long line of kids that are A. doing cartwheels B. picking fuzzy dandelions C. singing happy slappy dancey rhymey songs D. whining about who’s taking cuts or bumping them or saying something mean. There was no score anyway, as everyone got a turn or two and made a home run.

They are so amusing.

Kickball with the 3-4 grade was even better. These kids had more knowledge and I just had to umpire and manage the whole thing. 4th wanted boys vs. girls and after getting about 9 runs on their turn (we play everybody gets an at-bat and then we switch) they were pretty excited that they successfully prevented the girls from getting even one single for about the first ten of them. Yessiree, they thought they were all that and a bag of chips as one girl said. But eventually apathy (witness boys doing cartwheels in the outfield) and human nature (arguing over who’s going to field the ball) led to the girls getting some runs as well.

They are so amusing. We were having so much fun that I forgot to check the watch I had borrowed from the office and they were nearly late getting to their buses at the end of the day.

And did I mention that the weather was AWESOME? What a blessing to be outside ALL the day. After every class, I brought the kids back in with  5 minutes to spare so I could “water” them – holding the fountain and counting 1-2-3-GO for each one so everyone could get a quick turn. 25-30 kids in each class takes a while! Then I counted “uno, dos, tres, andalez!” and later it was “einz zwei drei, schnell!” and then “un, deu, troi, vite!”
I suspect my spelling is a bit off on some of those, but the kids enjoyed it.

I’m so amusing.