While we were out on the plant photo shoot with a different group of first graders, one of them found this sweet little feather. (I hate saying how desperately I wanted to keep it for my own collection — especially since I was sure she would lose it.) I had just calmed half of them down from crying because they had seen a bee, and while I was holding on to the feather so she could take her pictures, a group of kids found a green caterpillar and two of them were yelling “I’m not trying to hurt it, I’m trying to get it with this stick!” So while I held the feather (and juggled my phone, the walkie-talkie, and the Kindle of one kid who couldn’t be trusted to hold on to it himself) and tried to rescue the caterpillar, three other kids found a skink on the steps and started screaming “it’s a lizard, it’s a lizard, it’s a lizard!” While I was trying to get them to stop chasing the poor skink, which was desperately trying to get away from them, I dropped the caterpillar and Gracie started yelling at me not to drop her feather. It’s times like these when I really question my line of work.
