An Explosion of Life

My classroom has become quite the zoo. (As a colleague pointed out, it has always been a zoo, only now it has animals.) I’ve had to two toads residing in the classroom for a week, along with the tiny microcreatures that tagged along in their pond water. Water mites, aquatic worms, and the like—really neat looking under the microscopes.

Today, a student brought in a jar filled with tadpoles. We think that there is also a fairy shrimp, but we’re not sure. “I just put the jar down in the pond,” he said, as we all looked in amazement at the twenty or so wiggling tadpoles.

Another student brought in a plastic container filled with salamanders. “They were all in my garden,” she said.

Well, it was a busy day. The students are working hard to finish their books to share with kindergarteners on Tuesday. But they couldn’t help but wander to the back of the room to gaze at the tadpoles.

I couldn’t help to look in their direction, either. There was just so much to do! What kind of tadpoles are they? (Toad, I think, but I want confirmation!) What else is in there? How can I get kids to write about them? How can we share them with others?

But I can’t do it all in one day. Patience! Tomorrow I need to try to get the rest of my classroom back in order.