Not at all! I'm having a fabulous time as a new retiree and, if you care to read about my retired life, scroll down after you learn how to make and play "Bat-Minton!"
When my younger son was in preschool, his creative teacher had the children make this adorable "bat-minton" craft/ activity. I shared the idea with my own kindergarten students for many years. Click on the Bat-Minton craft hyperlink below for a freebie template.
Supplies: 7" black paper plates, popsicle sticks, black construction paper, scissors, glue, white crayons and/or white colored pencils, and balloons
Crafting tips:
- You'll need to cut out the wing template and trace it twice on black construction paper with white crayon or colored pencil.
- Your crafters can cut out the wings and the eyes and glue them to the black paper plate.
- They can cut off corners of the construction paper to make pointed ears.
- Use the white crayon to draw on the mouth and small pointed teeth.
- Glue the popsicle stick to the back.
- Be sure to use real glue for this project so the bat stays put together for the game. Also, I suggest you make the bats at least several hours ahead of playing the game. You want to make sure that the glue has dried.
Activity: To play "Bat-Minton," blow up the balloons; one per participant is nice. Players toss the balloons in the air and get under them with their bats to bounce the balloons back into the air. Note: Be sure that there are no restrictions in your school about using latex balloons due to the presence of individuals with latex allergies.
So, that's that for bats!
As for what I've been up to in retirement, here are some highlights.
- I've gone through over 24 bankers boxes of teaching materials from my 41 year career in education ( 31 years of public school teaching plus 10 years of tutoring.) I tossed about a third of my files and materials, kept about a third of the materials for tutoring and teaching French (Oui! Je parle français!) and I've organized the rest for one of my former students who is just starting her career in early childhood education.
- My talented husband built bookshelves for the nearly 500 books in my children's book collection. I'm enjoying sharing the library with my grandsons and friends' children.
- I've started tutoring a math student and four French students three days a week.
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| Belle, my French froggy, helps me teach French! |
As you can see, I'm still interested in the world of education and expect that will always be true for me. But, I'm also having a lot of fun doing other things as you can see in the photo montage below.
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From left to right: Celebrating my folks' 70th anniversary, 3 generations vacation in Door County, traveling to Denver for my younger grandson's 3rd birthday in Denver, taking French language classes in Quebec City, trying out new baking projects, and attending ALL the home football games at Northwestern University, my alma-mater, with family or friends--here's my BFF from college.... I love retirement!
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If you are new to this blog, I hope you might look back at earlier posts. I believe I have another couple of dozen ideas to share in future posts, as well. If you are an early childhood educator or a parent of young children, I think you may find some good ideas here.
Thanks for reading!
