Summer Olympics

The Summer Olympics were not only in full swing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 
but also here at Rainbow Connection.

The bears in Ready, Set, Go! by Stan and Jan Berenstain had a Bear Olympics and gave us ideas for our Olympics.

We started the week decorating flags to represent Rainbow Connection. We used the colors of the Olympics- red, green, blue, yellow and black and dipped canning jar lids in paint of those colors to represent the Olympic Rings.

When complete and dry, we marched to Olympic music in our very own Olympic parade for our opening ceremonies.

We started competition with swimming- one of our favorites. We jumped, swam and slid into the water.

Each of us has had our own personal victories at the swimming pool this summer. 

The spectators were extremely encouraging: )

Next up were our gymnastic competitions which included floor exercise, beam and bar.

These were some awesome somersaults!

Balancing on the beam takes so much concentration!

We displayed awesome upper body strength on the bar!

Day 3 brought us to equestrian competition.

A lot of perseverance was exhibited as we rode our horses long distance.

Many of us kept going long after our horses gave out...

Ball games concluded our first week of competition. We played volleyball,

tennis,

and golf...

With competition over for the week, we used golf balls to dip in paint and roll in a pan for some remarkable pieces of art.

Time to relax and look forward to a 

new week of competition!

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We got back into the swing of things in our second week of competition with Rowing. We read the book, Row, Row, Row Your Boat and sang the song by the same name. 

We chose a partner for rowing and sang as we rowed.

 Outside in our pool, we tried floating in our own little boats. We had to work hard at balancing our bodies inside the boat or it would tip over. Some of us worked hard and mastered the skill. We showed awesome perseverance.

Track and Field competition was up next. 

We all proved to be great runners. We ran together as a group and then we each had a chance to do it individually. 

Running and jumping over hurdles proved a lot harder than we thought but we kept at it and accomplished our goals.

We were all great at the javelin throw. It takes plenty of concentration and eye hand coordination to get the javelin through the goal. 

Discus throw as well...We had those discus flying!

We practice jumping all the time around here, so in the broad jump and high jump we were able to show some amazing skill showing how far we could jump...

and how high!

Before  we started our Taekwondo competition, we read The Three Ninja Pigs, a story about three little pigs who decided to learn martial arts to defend themselves against the big bad wolf. In keeping with the tradition of the original three little pigs story, the first two little pigs were kind of lazy and they gave up after earning their first belt. The third little pig stuck with her training and earned her black belt. She was able to defend herself and her brothers against the big bad wolf because of her confidence and discipline. 

Our competition consisted of blocking, punching and kicking but not until we showed respect by bowing and then shaking the hands of our partners.

Shake hands...

High blocks...

Punching...

Kicking...

With competition over, it was time for the presentation of the medals. Each of us chose our favorite competition and as we stood on the podium we each received a gold medal for all of our hard work and perseverance. We are all winners!

To conclude our ceremony, we listened to "The Star Spangled Banner" as we held our hands proudly over our hearts.