Last Day Of School

Wow, what a last day of school this was! In former days the last day of school waterfight was a surprise and the kids went home soaking wet in their clothes. Since this has become a tradition and no longer a surprise to the kids we may as well dress for it!
We start off with the water balloons, passing them back and forth until they pop on each other. I have to say they were awfully nice to each other. I would have been trying to get the other person wet!

We then moved to passing them around like a hot potato. Looks like one just exploded on Mark there :)


Those big water balloons are kinda hard to pop. We ended up throwing them in the air and having the kids catch them. The incentive was, if they caught the balloon, they got to throw it in the air.

We then moved on to sponges. It's like a snowball fight in the middle of summer!


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And then we moved on to water guns.

"Just how do these things work anyway??" I had to explain this a few times, calling time out while students gleefully got me wet.

Now you may think that this is unfair, me having by far the superior firepower, but....

....I needed to even things out a little bit!

And finally we moved on to the good ol' slip 'n slide!

Now this was fun!

Well now, this seemed like soooo much fun that I just couldn't resist.

Then it was time to rest for a bit and enjoy our Rolo ice cream.

Gathering around while I opened the class gift.

Spoiled rotten :) Thanks very much! I'm truly ready for the beach now!

Awwwwww! :)

Remember these?

Well, they hatched. Now that the kids are enjoying their summer break, there are killdeer roaming all about the fields. And they're busy keeping an eye their cute little wee ones. See?

It turns out that mom and pop killdeer aren't particularly enthused with the paparazzi pursuing their progeny, and well, neither are said progeny. Here's one scurrying away from me.

They have been taught to run to the tall grass and hide from danger...

....or if they can't get to the tall grass, duck down and be very, very still. See how close I got?

Needless to say mom was highly unimpressed with me.

Woo Hoo! Class Trip!

There's nothing quite like finishing off our Woodland Natives unit like visiting a native village. It's fun to see how the kids were always so interested in their learning and then being able to see the things we had talked about.

"Look a longhouse!"

"It's a palisade!!"

Regaling the guide with their knowledge.

Always a highlight -- checking out the interior of the longhouse.

Pounding the corn into cornmeal.

The games are awfully fun!

Look ma!....

...no matches!

Playing native games like Rattlesnake and Hunter.

They played this game the rest of the year (in class) using their pencils. You placed a stick on top of your hand and then had to try to catch it with your palm facing down. It's actually harder than it looks!

awwww :)

Aw, mom! More sunscreen?!

Going for our stroll around the "lake". And look, they're actually walking. That's more due to the proliferation of poison ivy just off the path. We certainly didn't want them picking flowers on this day!