Fly Swatters

The flies arebuzzing this time of year, so here are some fun things to do with fly swatters.

Write letters,words, numerals, etc. on the chalkboard or on the sidewalk.  Give a child a fly swatter and saythis rhyme:

Turn around andswat a fly.

Tell me the(letter, word, number, etc.) that you spy.

The child closesher eyes, turns around, and swats the board.  She identifies the letter that the fly swatter is on.  If she doesn’t know it, she can “askthe audience” to help her.

Play a similargame with two fly swatters.  Dividethe class into two teams.  Onechild from each team comes to the board. The teacher calls out a letter. The first child to swat the letter wins a point for her team.  The game continues as differentchildren from each team come forward.

*If you writenumerals on the board you can call out a math fact.  The first person to swat the correct answer wins a point forher team.

Give children alarge sheet of paper.  Let themdraw insects on the paper with crayons or markers.  Place a little paint in a pie pan.  Children dip the fly swatter in the paint and hit thepaper. 

*You can also dothis as a group project and use bulletin board paper.  Attach to a fence on the playground with clothespins and swat away!

On a more personal note, we had a wonderful thing happen yesterday.  My husband's niece from CA was visiting with her two children aged 6 and 8.   Our grandson is in Bulgaria for the summer and he'd never met these second cousins.  We were able to Skype yesterday and it was incredible!!!  We're thousands of miles apart and the kids were telling jokes and laughing.  Now, K.J. can't wait to meet them in person.

One teacher said that when a child moved they tried to Skype to ease the sense of loss. Isn't that a great idea to tuck in your pocket for this coming school year?

Another great thing happened yesterday.  One of my neighbors has a granddaughter who teaches pre-K in Oklahoma City.  Kristin came over and it was so much fun to meet a kindred spirit!