On Wednesday, a couple of my students found a baby tarantula in the playground. They brought it to school. As you can imagine, this caused quite the excitement. . . the girls screaming at high, ear-piercing pitches, the boys acting tough but cowering when it came near them. The teachers, most of them, not going anywhere near it. . .
I set up a habitat for the tarantula, putting rocks and leaves and a few flowers in it (not sure what they eat besides birds and lizards). The kids came and looked at it all day every chance they got, it was the high-light of their day. Gracie, my 3 year old wanted to know if it was REALLY REAL!?! Many kids asked me where his fangs were and where his head was (the head and rear are very similar. . . ). All in all, it was a good, calm day of viewing, until Marcy (an American teacher) wanted to take a picture of one of her sons holding it. That is when it got exciting! At the end of the day, we walked out side and began trying to get it out of the fish bowl. The squills and shrills began – also random running and jumping . In the end, 5 of the 19 students held the tarantula and 2 of the teachers (myself and Julie). It felt like a giant grand-daddy long-leg in my hand – kind of neat, but don’t want it on my face!!
Afterwards, we sent all the kids home. Esteban, a 9th grader asked me to let me let it loose again. So, he took it to a rocky area and released it. But, we set the fish bowl with the lid back in the school. Can’t wait to see their reaction when they think the tarantula has escaped!! (details to come. .
No comments:
Post a Comment