Suma is doing a happy dance now that summer has finally arrived in Westlake and, with it, lots of outdoor activities to choose from! Let’s face it – sitting on a perch all day long in the Youth Services Department while no visitors are allowed at the library can be a pretty boring thing to do! So… last Saturday, Suma leapt from her perch, padded towards one of the library’s many storage closets, and discovered all sorts of things to keep her busy. Suma screamed for Flat Suma (Don’t worry –she wasn’t being rude! Screaming is just one of the sounds along with growls, hisses and purrs that Pumas can make), and the two friends headed outside to have some fun.
ACTIVITY #1:
Cornhole
Corn hole is a game in which players take turns throwing bean bags at a raised platform that has a hole in the far end. Cornhole matches are played with two sets of bags, two boards and two to eight players. Having paws for hands can make throwing bean bags a little bit challenging, but Suma and Flat Suma persevered (that means they kept trying really hard) and ended up hurling the bags through the air by grasping them in their rather large teeth and whipping their heads towards the target. While playing corn hole, they learned that almost anything goes and anyone can easily figure out how to play!
Activity #2:
Hula Hoop
Most people know that a hula hoop is a round plastic tube that can be twirled around your waist, neck or limbs. Well, pumas aren’t like most people and didn’t know what to do with that strange plastic circle – so at first they sprinted through the hoops as fast as they could go (Did you know that pumas can reach speeds of up to 50 miles per hour?!). After Miss Jamie explained that hula hoops can also be used for twirling, Suma and Flat Suma had a blast learning the basics and are looking forward to adding some tricks like the z-spin to their routines.
Activity #3:
Hopscotch
On a shelf inside the storage closet that Suma was poking around in, she found a container of sidewalk chalk along with instructions for drawing a hopscotch court. You guessed it! –Suma had never heard of hopscotch, so Miss Cathy taught her that it’s a popular playground game in which players toss a small object on numbered spaces outlined on the ground and then hop or jump through the spaces and retrieve the object. Pumas are great climbers but maybe not such great hoppers…Did that stop Suma and Flat Suma?! Of course not! They discovered that kids (or pumas) can stick with the traditional rules or make up their own cool variation of the game!
If you’d like to learn more about outside games and activities, here are some books that you can check out at the library:
