Frogs, Flowers and a Bazillion Dollars

A few years ago, our school was completely torn down and rebuilt, environmentally friendly. We now have a beautiful school garden which is kept looking pretty by our wonderful garden committee (parent and student volunteers). Each grade-level has their own garden bed to plant in and make beautiful. I've never planted anything in ours before because of my fear of killing the kids' hard work.

On Friday, my class and I planted seeds in our classroom garden bed. With the help of a volunteer mom (born with a green-thumb), we set out to plant our seeds. We planted Sweet Peas on one 1/2, and a Hummingbird Seed mix on the other. It was really fun and the kids just loved it (except for the handful that complained about how hot they were).

Yesterday, I was on STRIKE ONE towards killing our flowers (which haven't even broken-ground yet) when I forgot my water bucket at home to water our garden bed. Oops.

On our way back from P.E. this afternoon, we took 'the long way' back to class so we could check out our garden bed. And guess what? I saw green! There were actual 'green things' sticking out of the freshly-turned soil! I was so excited. As I bent over to inspect it, I realized that the 'green things' look awfully like weeds. Shoot.

Do I just fake it and get the kids excited about 'weeds?' Do seeds really sprout that fast? Since I honestly didn't know whether they were new sprouts or a variation of our weed-enemy, I just told the kids that they may ... or may NOT be weeds. I'm thinking in this case, honesty is the best policy. The 'sprouts' got a lot of "oohs and aahs" which I thought was very cool.

But then ... the REAL wing-dinger happened! The kids saw a frog! Cool!

It was all over. Kids going crazy. Frog trying to dodge 23 pairs of eager hands. Me yelling, "Let the frog go!", etc.

Chaos man! I tell ya!

Once I get the kids calmed down and in a single-file line to head back to class, I start thinking about how cool that experience was, but that I definitely don't get paid enough money to rally 23 kids all day. To my peaceful dismay, one of them starts crying. Oh brother.

What now? I just really wanted this to be a leisurely stroll through the garden!

The child stops to sob, "I want to see the frog! I didn't get to see it. I want to see the fffrrrroooogggg!"

All I can think about is getting the kids back into class. They've just been to P.E. Everyone is thirsty, it's snack-time, everyone is hungry. So I jokingly say, "I'm sorry. I know you want to see the frog, and I want a million dollars." If he's saying what he wants ... I'm saying what I want!

Without missing a beat, one of my other kids got this really excited expression on his face and he said, "I know how you can get a lot of money! You have to play that game that adults play, and if you win, you get a lot of money!"

I say, "You mean like the Lotto or something?"

And he says, "Yah, you play the lotto and if you win you get a bazillion dollars or something like that!"

Isn't that sweet!?

P.S. I guess I better start playing the Lotto!