I LOVE Bugs!

I bet you had no idea that I LOVE bugs. Yep, I am a bug lovin' girl. You see when I was in college and forced told I had to take Entomology I almost died. Seriously, I almost died twice. And when I was told I had to have a bug collection of FIFTY bugs, I was starting to contemplate my career choice. Trust me friends, I questioned why in the world a girl wanting to be a Kindergarten teacher was forced to take a bug class and who in their right mind would EVER, EVER require someone to run around and catch bugs for a grade. Just the thought of this task almost made me become a social worker. 

Long story short, I HAD to major in Science in order to become a Kindergarten teacher. You can find that entire saga somewhere in the archives of the Teaching Blog Addict blog. So this meant I had to catch bugs, walk around with kill jars, learn about nature, dissect things large and small, observe the night sky, learn to love a rock or two, scrap my way through Meteorology (wasn't that nightmare fun) and 40 more hours of "ology" classes. Oh, and what about Cell and Molecular? That one was so much fun talking about the genetics and those wild eyed tree frogs. This is not a joke. And while I am on memory lane, what about the semester in the Physics department? I hope NOBODY remembers me from my stint over in that department. YIKES! But this is what it would take to become a Kindergarten teacher...

I can't believe that I would actually put this in print but my Science education actually did prepare me for Kindergarten. And I am a tree hugger, bug lover and a Kindergarten teacher. But my favorite part of Kindergarten is Science. And so my Math Friends do not flip out, I will clarify my statement by saying Science includes Math... it's hand and hand. I LOVE Math just as much. But most important I love Science and Math within the Kindergarten classroom because this is where the foundation is...magically in Kindergarten. And when I was running through the nature center catching the prize winning YELLOW JACKET, I was thinking I was just one step closer to being a Kindergarten teacher or maybe a prize winning Science teacher... 

Now that you have read all of that... I really just stopped by to share a FREEBIE link with you to some really cute Valentine's for your little Scientist. It's over in my Science Lab. I guess when you hop over there you will see why I had to travel down memory lane and share my story with you. Oh, and if you are wondering how I did on the bug collection of 50 bugs? I got all 49 fair and square. Yep, hopping through fields, dragging nets and chemicals with me where ever I went. Needless to say, nobody invited me to a picnic that spring. Oh, and bug number 50? It was supposed to be a flea. Magically no dog around me had a darn flea I could see. I was really upset about not having the ever elusive common everyday flea. My lab partner came up with a plan. She took the head off one of the not so prize winning bugs and pinned it to the collection and tagged it as the ever elusive flea. I guess all of the ooo la la over the prize winning, rare, Texas STINGING Yellow Jacket distracted my professor. 

I carry those nightmares memories with me and every once in a while I tell the kids that when we learn about something even bugs we can appreciate them. And when the kids need a real talking to... I tell them I crawled around on the ground searching for bugs and I flew with my net over hills and rough terrain JUST to become their Kindergarten teacher. It gets them every single time!