Upon returning to school from the holiday break, students continued their imaginary journey with a trip to Times Square in New York City. They watched a short video of the New Year's Eve ball drop and then we had a ball drop of our own in Physical Education. Students wore party hats and counted down from 10 as I dropped a big yellow exercise ball. Students learned about the actual ball and how it is made up of over 2600 Waterford crystal triangles with thousands of LED bulbs blinking behind each crystal panel. The ball can actually be seen from space when it is lit.
We followed this event with a movement activity that involved numbers and grouping. We used a song called "Happy New Year" by Cat Paws in Motion. Students moved to the music and then had to get into groups of a certain number that I called out. If there were not enough students for a group, then beanbags were used to make up the difference. Younger students did a similar activity, moving to a cone that had the number I called out. The entire group circled the cone. The end of the activity involved counting down from 10, jumping up to yell out "Happy New Year," and giving a friend a hand shake or hug.
