Making Balloon Animals

You may have remembered me bragging about our amazing awards assembly back in March.  (Read about it here)  We had a wonderful local artist names Zany Janie come to our school and do a fun presentation for our school.  She told me she had a Facebook page and I of course had to "like" so I could see all the cool things she has going on.  One day I noticed she had a contest and you could win a presentation in your classroom for Zany Janie and Mr. B Loon to come in and teach your class how to make balloon animals.  I had to enter the contest and guess what????  I WON!  I was so excited!!  I didn't tell my students as I wanted to keep it a surprise.

Fast forward to today....this morning I told them that I had a surprise for them after lunch, but I wouldn't tell them what it was.

After lunch, they saw Zany & Mr. B walk in the building and they were so excited to see them again (they still had no idea they were coming to our room).

The kids came in and sat at the carpet and then in walked Zany Janie and Mr. B Loon.  I swear the look on their faces was priceless.  It was amazing.

First, Janie followed Mr. B's directions, but her dog kept ending up looking different than Mr. B's.  She did this to show the students that our balloon animal dogs could all look different and that's o.k.

Then it was time to pick a balloon.

Once we had our balloons we had to get them ready.

Time to make our balloon animals.  The students were very good listeners.  They did a great job following directions.

Here is our finished product:

Then it was time to make a snake.  For this, each child had to come up individually and Zany Janie helped them form the snake's mouth.

After they made the mouth, they went to see Mr. B Loon to get some snake eyes.

A finished snake complete with eyes and special stickers:

Then Janie told us a story about a snake and made two special snakes.

She passed them around and had the students have her snake say hello to their snake.

Want to know what I loved best about the whole thing?  She incorporates reading, math, and science skills wherever she can.  They are both gentle and kind and love to make the students laugh.


Mr. B Loon even made me this cute butterfly which was perfect since we are learning all about insects this week!

It was a wonderful day and one I don't think my students will ever forget.  If you are in the area (or even if you are not), you should head over to their Facebook page and like them!  Thank you Zany Janie & Mr. B Loon for an experience we will never forget!