Power Panther Pals

Our school participates in Power Panther Pals and today we started our 8-week journey of "Eat Smart, Play Hard."

We get a big notebook of 8 lessons, and money to buy the food that goes along with each lesson.

This is a natural fit into our Cloverbuds time, but instead of being twice a month, it is weekly for 8 weeks.

We divided it into 4 rotations (like Cloverbuds). Each lasted approximately 30 minutes. Then we had just enough time for recess, lunch, another recess and 2 hours worth of lessons. I felt like I crammed a lot in, but always wonder if I am doing enough "teaching reading." That's a whole nuther discussion. And then we need to talk about math. Big sigh. I can only hope they are ready for second grade despite what I am not doing and because of the "stuff" that we add.

Oh yeah, and we had visitors today. I'm done counting how many visitors we have had this year, let alone in the past 6 weeks!

One rotation was cooking. They made some delicious looking "rainbow fruit cups." It was a thumbs up from my kids.

Another rotation was learning the lesson and specifically what muscles need.

My group made chef hats. I think I got the BEST rotation today. It was fun, the kids loved making and wearing the hats, and it inspired great writing this afternoon.

He is explaining to me the healthy foods that he has drawn on his hat.

I loved taping the hats and then sending the kids to the mirror to see how they looked. I think their smiles tells it all.

The last rotation was physical activity. They played some tag games. And when I came in to take their photo they were doing ABC push ups. What a great way to be active and practice the alphabet. We may be doing that again.

We were so fortunate that the temperature was high enough to be outside today. I was at both recesses, so no break for me, but at least the kids screamed, ran, had fun, smiled and acted goofy as much as they wanted.