The one Without a Tadpole

I had my second to last JA day today. I did preschool for the first time in I think eleven years. I had a brand new Junior bear to help give instructions and things like that but honestly I think I want to have one of my own with more of a history to it. Ideally I would love to have one chosen just for this that would come to me in some amazing way so I could take him on vacation with me and have him have his own scrapbook of amazing adventures to tell the students about. I know I’m a nut. But it would be so awesome to have one that came from someplace I’ve never been with a photo of his past home and his friend who helped him find me. I’m pathetic go ahead and say it.

Anyway back to my JA day. I was very early like I usually am and I decided that I needed to go to CVS and get nametags and baby wipes which turned out to be a very good idea in two ways. So I went blindly into the school; I had no teacher information nor did I bother to print out the agenda for the day. Not a good idea there. I got to the school a little after eight and had to ask where JA was meeting. I got directions from the staff who was awesome and I went down to find that I was the first volunteer to arrive. I got my things and looked at my teacher’s name and thought it looked familiar and was kind of surprised to see a male teacher for preschool. After some time I decided to go down to the room and find out what I was getting myself into. I walked in to someone sneezing and from the back I knew immediately I worked with Jeff years ago. It was so awesome to see him as a teacher.

As we chatted about the class and what we were going to do for the JA day the assitant came in and she started moving around the room and then all of a sudden she asked what happened to Bubbles. Jeff told her that he was floating when he got in and had gotten rid of him. Bubbles it turned out was the class tadpole. The kids had no idea of what he was but had made guesses and there were several kids who had come in every morning to check on him.

I went back to JA headquarters until the kids arrived and at nine we all rolled out and I got to the classroom as Jeff was patiently explaining to one of them what had happened to Bubbles. One little guy was worried that a bad guy had done something to him and was walking around the classroom with a magnifying glass looking for footprints. Several students wanted to know what happened and Jeff and Julie (the assistant) weren’t sure themselves.

The class itself went well although the kids were a little frustrated at how long the program it was; two and a half hours is a little long for four year olds. Thankfully the teaching team was awesome and they took the kids outside for a bit and snack was scheduled just right; they had a blast making the scarves.

It was good seeing Jeff again too. I miss working with people like him. But this is the first time I had the death of a class pet hanging over the student’s heads.