The New Year’s toy, cup and ball, was the subject of a nice investigation into different types of balls. There are balls that bounce and those that don’t, but all balls seem to be mostly round. Not many balls come with holes as part of the game, other than bowling balls and those practice golf balls. The word balloon comes from the base <ball>and the suffix <oon> means a large ball. The hot-air balloon disaster in Egypt was the worst in balloon history. It was interesting to discuss whether or not balloon travel would be something students would like to still try and to have them write about it.