Made it to Rocky Hill School by 8:30 and was setup, practicing and ready to go. A little rubber cement on my nose and a good fresh coat on the red ping pong ball assured that I'd have some laughs from the kids by throwing the ping pong ball up and catching it on my nose then balancing it there and taking a bow with the ball still on my nose.
The newspaper was there and I'll be quoted in Wednesday's Living section.
I began teaching first grader's how to juggle. Of the many things that the phrase "herding cats" fits with this is certainly one! It's much fun!
This was Rocky Hill's 24th Clown Day. In Knoxville, apparently this is the only school the Ringling Brothers and Barney and Bailey Clowns visit. They always do a remarkable job and I enjoy getting to speak with them.
After teaching the children for an hour and 15 minutes or so the clowns showed up and did an outstanding performance with dogs, juggling, an acordian and remarkable bubbles blown with their hand.
The kids left for lunch and I got to speak with the clowns briefly (always a thrill). Then Amy and Cathy showed up and we got to interact with the clowns briefly until we started to get in the shot that the news was trying to film (we exited quickly at that point and joined Noah for lunch). Amy did good with the clowns. She didn't seem scared as much as she did the bashful routine she does with strangers.
After lunch I found the first graders had started the next round of activites early so I rushed in to teach my next group. Obviously they were sugared up. The pre-lunch crowd was more focused on learning; the post-lunch crowd just wanted to throw things. There were several students that with some 1 on 1 time I could have had juggling 3 balls in no time flat.
During one of the breaks I actually got some guys and juggled all 5 of my crystal balls. It was beautiful. My pattern seemless. When I did mess up the rubberized gymnasium floor gracefully caught the crystal balls. I did a much better job than I expected. It looks like I'm juggling bubbles when I do it. Must add to the performance!
I enjoy Clown Day very much!
