Tadpole City Baby!

The schoolyard is still a lake, the rain is still pouring but the frogs appear to have gone elsewhere, much to the dismay of the crows. They have, however, left a legacy behind them. I was staring  mindlessly into the water trying to plan a science lesson when I noticed what I thought were millions and millions of tiny black seeds. On closer inspection the seeds appeared to have tails and were wriggling quite furiously. I looked across the yard and realised that in the space of 4 days, the 20 or so frogs I'd be turfing out of classrooms had succeeded in spawning hundreds of thousands of teeny tiny tadpoles. The water was teaming with them, even the puddles were full of frantically thrashing wrigglers.

Having recently done a lesson on the life cycle of the frog, I realised Id found my science lesson. I ran into class and told Standard 5 we were going to conduct a long term observation of the life cycle in action. We all trooped outside and the kids stared in fascination at the real life version of my badly drawn tadpoles. One kid refused point blank to believe they were frog babies, stating kindly and condescendingly that they were fish. We managed to procure a bucket from somewhere (I asked no questions) and filled it with water and tadpoles. Our classroom is now the proud owner of a tadpole tank. I had to stop the kids fishing them out though, they kept trying to see their eyes and gills. I explained that for the tadpoles to live long enough to grow visible gills and eyes, they would have to avoid the repeated trauma of almost dying. The tadpoles were replaced, but not before Joseph Katana demanded a photo op "To see the size of the tadpoles to show again when they're bigger Madam."

Its the weekend now and everybody's praying for sun so we can make it to the beach. Everyone except me that is. I keep thinking of those determined little wrigglers and secretly hoping their home doesn't dry up too soon...:)