Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Climb, Like a Monkey

After school today the teachers and staff gathered in the gym to check out our new rock climbing wall. This was a gift from the PTA and it isn't your ordinary rock climbing wall. It only goes about 7 feet up the wall, but stretches about 50 feet from one end to the other. It has three different colored markers that you can grab or place your feet on when going from one end to the other; green, yellow, and red. It is magnetic with words and parts of words all over it. It also has random white marker boards placed on it. There are numerous educational activities that can be incorporated into this beast, besides just climbing.

There were a couple activities put together for us to try. First, we were challanged to make it across using any color. Then we we challenged to use just one color; green being the easiest and red being the hardest. I made it across twice, using whatever color. Later on I attempted numerous times to go across on the red, but I only made it half way across. Then, we did a relay activity where we took turns running from a cone to the wall, climbing a few feet and grabbing a word, letter, or sound (ou, ook, ow, etc.) and bringing it back to our team. After a given time, we had to create a sentence with those words and the team with the best sentence won. Guess who won? Yep, my team! What was our sentence? The boy at school likes all the girls. Pretty clever, huh?

It was a lot of fun. Between my swim this morning, and climbing like a monkey this afternoon, my arms have been left feeling a little jiggly. In a good way, that is.

My internal clock woke me up at 4am. I guess I might be getting used to morning workouts. So, I made myself get up and left for the pool at 430. This was the first time I have ever attempted a swim prior to work. I was unsure how much I would be able to get done and how long it would take me to get ready and head all the way back to the other side of town. Thus, I only had 800M on my schedule but I did 1200M. After I was done getting ready for work and realized how early it still was, I knew I could have easily done a mile swim. Next time, maybe.

OSN: 1200M

15 comments:

akshaye said...

That wall sounds like a blast. Very clever coming up with that! Nice swim.. you'd probably be the first one coming into school that early.

Wes said...

Oooh, honey! I'd be bouncing that clock off the wall. Wait a minute... Don't do that!!

J~Mom said...

The wall sounds fun!! How in the world do you get up that early? Yikes!!

Lily on the Road said...

good for you, swimming in the morning always wakes me up!

you did a great job on the wall....

RunnerGirl said...

Wow, the wall sounds so cool. What a great gift from the PTA!

IronGambit said...

cool stuff huh?

Nancy said...

OMG, no way could I get up that early in the winter and make myself get into a pool. YOU ROCK.

Allez said...

"tagged" ya!

Jess said...

That rock wall sounds like so much fun! And a great way to sneak in physical activities with learning. I bet the kids will love it!

Rocking job on the swim!

Molly said...

what a cool idea!

4:00...WOW!

take care

Ms Eva said...

What a fun workout! :)

Mendy said...

The wall sounds fun. Never thought of it being an education tool.

That's a great job getting in that swim before work, and doing more yardage. I'm impressed!

Danielle said...

Very cool. Good job on the getting up and getting to the gym for the swim.

The climbing wall sounds cool.

Steve Stenzel said...

That sounds awesome! And I was that boy at school (that liked all the girls!).

MNFirefly said...

A climbing wall would be SO much run. What a great gift for the kids!