Icky things Part 2

So, I find out that our fourth grade class is getting.... crabs, frogs, and millipedes!!! Yep, we had to build the habitats ourselves which wasn't so bad. Then the animals came. They were shipped from a company and came in big boxes packed with lots of the little foam peanuts. Then, the frogs and crabs were in bags with water and the millipedes in little trays.

I was icked out at the thought of having to get those little frogs out. They are more like fish in that they swim in a big tank and are small frogs - African Dwarf Frogs to be exact. I wasn't sure how to get them out, so I went over and watched the Science teacher expert get hers out. They were jumping all over the place! They hopped right out of the nets onto the floor!! I always hated as a kid when our fish jumped out of the tank. My dad would just pick them up with his bare hands and plop them back into the tank, as did Belinda to the frogs. I was really a little stressed about it. She offered to come do my class but I decided I needed to do mine on my own.

The kids were divided into five groups. Each group was supposed to get three each of frogs, millipedes, and crabs. I then had a tank of the "extras". "Extras" means that when an animal dies from one of their groups, it got replaced with one of mine. Therefore, I had to maintain my own tank instead of getting kids to do it.

The first few made me nervous, but the anxiety was heightened by the fact that I had to do it with my kids in the room. I gave them an assignment, but they were watching me and the frogs of course. There were a couple of dead ones which grossed me out, and I felt bad for them. But, without much ceremony, into the trash can they went. Luckily, there were no incidents, and they all got into their new little habitats safely. I was really proud of myself! They were really pretty cute once I wasn't having to TOUCH them. They just eat fish food and swim around.

Then to the millipedes. There's just no getting around these squirmy little things. I had the kids that wanted to pick them up and put them into their tanks. Someone wanted to in each group. I had a kid do mine. YUCK! They eat leftover apples, lettuce, etc.

The crabs were another story. They came in two bags, males and females. The males were all big ones (1-3") and came snapping and active and ready to go. I got them divided out, but they were tricky as well. They are very fast little guys. Then, I went to open the female bag. The water in that bag was filthy. Something was wrong because several of them were dead. I had to throw several of them out and the kids only had two each. They eat very stinky food. GROSS!

Well, over the past couple of weeks, the kids have really enjoyed them. They have done pretty well in caring for them. One day, all of the frog tanks were filthy. The kids were just feeding them too much and the water got very dirty. Someone had to clean them out. Short of having Jason come up and do it, I would have to. And I did! It was at that moment that I realized God was helping me grow.

At the end of the project, we adopted the animals out. Of course, not a lot of parents wanted those animals in their houses. Our class actually had the most frogs live. I adopted out several, and then we had three left over. One class had only one frog that lived the entire time! I did choose to give away the millipedes - they were still too gross for me. I did end up picking them up to get them to the other teacher adopting them, but I did wear gloves... :) I now have three frogs that I am taking home to the kids, and I have several crabs that I'm going to keep in the classroom. They are pretty cool!

I like when I realize that God is even concerned about growing me in the small areas as well. It's not a hugely important thing, but I became able to enjoy a few more of God's creations. Most importantly for myself, I overcame a part of a fear. I still can't squash a big crunchy bug, but the creepy crawlies don't bother me quite as much as I used to. It was a big confidence thing for me! Wonder what fears I'll conquer next....