I’ll admit, I was skeptical of “black light dodgeball”. The parent in me started wringing my hands with “can everyone see enough” or “we’ve got really hard throwers” and “what is someone gets hurt?” The jock in me is flexing thinking, “Dude, that sounds freekin’ awesome” and “how hard can I throw this without getting in trouble?”

#dual personalities #thestruggleisrealjustaskmywife

But, as I walked into the gym, I was pretty well slack-jawed at what I saw:

 

We were able to purchase one black light spot light, and a number of smaller black lights along with reflective tape and dodge balls. The result is what you see in these pictures (with really don’t do this justice at all). The kids walked in the same way, with a gasp and a “whoa, this is cool!!” So, we played dodgeball, we played whiffle ball, the kids used high lighters and decorated themselves, which popped in the black light. Our science teacher had picked up light up wristbands after Halloween for cheap, so everyone had one of those, just in case their clothing didn’t reflect well. We had malts and hot chocolate during break times.

The best part, we had a mini read-in as well. Two hours of uninterrupted (as well as 8th graders can do) time to just read. A majority of our student read for a solid time, but we’ll talk Tuesday after Easter about how they have to develop that stamina to read. Many of them have the attention span of a fly, and reading for more than five minutes is a hard task for them. Watching this group, high school will be difficult because they don’t have that reading ability.

Anyway, the only complaints we had: not enough time to do things, too many people in certain activities, and more food (laugh at this one). Otherwise, the kids were TIRED but smiling on their way out.

#Iloveitwhenaplancomestogether