Teaching Tools and New Yarn

As a language teacher I am always trying to find ways to make students interact with each other and have fun at the same time. One such method is to use a ball that is thrown from student to student. Students then either ask each other a question and elicit an answer or you go around reading something one line, word, letter at a time. I generally like to use the ball, because I don't have to pick people and students will keep track of who had a turn and who did not themselves... so its fun, they interact and I don't have to keep track... Yeah.

In Missouri, we had a tennis ball for such occasions. And quite honestly I never liked to use it because obviously you can really hurt someone with it.... Not a good idea even in a college classroom. So for the most part I use a very soft cow... (Yes the animal you would usually see on meadows grazing...). Obviously I do not have any of those things here in NJ. So I just knitted a ball-like thing.

It worked perfectly as we went around the room reading the alphabet... No one got hurt... We do need to practice the throwing... but all in all well worth spending the two hours to knit this. It also used up most of my left-overs from the owl-knit.

I also purchased new yarn today... Very very pretty blue. It is a heather so the color varies just a little throughout which adds some interest. Originally, I was looking for a nice gray. But this color just caught my eye and I had to have it. It is also perfect for my very first cardigan of which I have already completed 7 rows.

You may be asking what happened to all the stuffies I made in the beginning and why I am not working on those anymore... And no worries, there are still stuffies being made, although considerably less. I just finished another ninja. Since he is going to be a birthday present pictures are going to have to wait till March though. But he turned out quite well. I still have not decided on his special weapon though. I am also still working on some underwater themed stuffies for Andrew although I have not been having much luck with the box-jellyfish and giant clam so far.