A SURPRISE VISITOR

I like to try and have fresh flowers in my classroom,

from my or our school gardens,

 flowers the kids bring me (cuz they know I love them)

or maybe ones I buy for myself, 

just because   :)

I dry them out to be recycled in our eco-dye units,

or as added embellishments for class assignments.

Well two days before school started 

I went to our school's rose garden to see what I could find.

I cut several roses and put them into a bucket of water to take them back to my classroom.

Unbeknownst to me,

I had a passenger along for the ride.

This ginormous Praying Mathis.

I couldn't believe I hadn't seen him,

and that he could easily have crawled right onto me.

But there he was,

ready for class to begin.

I know how wonderful they are for your garden,

so I was determined to get him to one ASAP.

No class today young man.

I took that bucket that the roses were in and a piece of paper

 and sort of scooped him in.

Then placed the paper over top until I could rush him out.

It took me three tries because he jumped out twice.

And I didn't want to hurt him.

But he wasn't scared,

more curious.

I took him to the Succulent Garden next to my classroom 

and he hopped right onto a Jade Plant.

Home Sweet Home.

Phew Shuuuu.

Talk about a close call!

A Litter of Bugs Born in Room 18

While visiting super gardener, good friend and co-worker Mary, I spotted the coolest stick with an interesting pod shape on it and asked her what it was.  She told me she and her husband Gary collect these Praying Mantis hatched pods from their garden and lay them around as decoration.  I asked if I could take one home.  So Mary gave me two.  I wanted to share them with my art students, but I forgot to take them home.  Guess what?   The pod hadn't been hatched yet, and after a few days laying on my back table, I had a good 50 baby praying mantis crawling around my table and art supplies.  You can imagine the delight when my students learned they were there, especially for my bio kids.  So I very carefully scooped them up and put them outside in my dye garden.

And boy oh boy, did they love all the bugs in those leaves.  In a couple of weeks they grew quite a bit, and were very happy campers.

And so were my plants  :)