Earlier this week, one of my students and I had a conversation about stress balls. I'm not sure how it went exactly, but the result was that if she brought flour to school, we could make stress balls in art on Friday. She remembered! So I dug the balloons out of a cupboard, found some spoons and water bottle funnels, and the fun began. We only made a bit of a mess, mostly dribbling flour on the lab table (and a little on my shoes). Some of the balloons were bigger than others, but there weren't as many colors to choose from. The bigger ones worked the best. One girl used a small balloon because she liked the color better. It was super tiny! She was disappointed with it; since she brought the flour I said she could make a second one with a big balloon. Still, the small one was cute. One of her classmates said to me later, "It's pocket-sized so she can take it literally anywhere!" She was so excited about this feature. :)
After everyone finished, we went out for recess. Most of them brought their stress balls along and played catch/basketball/throw-at-stuff with them. One boy got his stuck high up on the wall; it had landed between some pipes and the wall. But he got it down with the help of a step stool. They sure had fun! A lot of them said they're going to make more when they get home. One boy (the same one who popped his exercise ball) accidentally got a hole in his ball. He tried regular tape, but again, it didn't work. He was going to try duct tape once he got home. I wonder if that will work...
At the end of the day I told the class they'd be allowed to use them during class as a fidget tool, but if it became a distraction, it would go in my desk. If they threw them at something/someone, it would go in my desk. They might have a hard time with that one...
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