A little surprise left in my classroom.

It's Friday!! Need I say more?

When I leave my classroom each day to go home, I have to leave my door open for the cleaning ladies. They lock it when they are through sweeping it.

I don't like leaving the door open like that. I worry the lady might forget to lock the door before she leaves. If someone were to break into the building, my classroom would by wide open to burglary, and many of my personal belongings, including books, supplies, and materials that I have paid for, could be stolen, not to mention the nice Apple Computer, the laptop, and other valuable books and materials that belong to the school. Fortunately, it has never happened.

The most that has ever been stolen from my classroom was six years ago when a pack of twelve yellow highlighters that I had purchased at Office Depot, when they were on sale, had disappeared from my desk. Found them in a 4th grade student's desk. Of course, he denied it when confronted, but after spending 20 minutes with the principal, he confessed. I forgave him, and never had another thing missing after that.

This morning, however, I walked into my classroom and discovered that before the cleaning ladies locked the door last night, a student had visited my classroom. He didn't take anything. Instead, he left me something, along with a note to explain what he had done.

I had left the butterfly pavillion in my classroom overnight. The polyphemus beauty had flown off onto her brief nuptial adventure yesterday morning (see previous entry for details: http://journals.aol.com/bgilmore725/Wanderer/entries/1091 ).

But with the spring weather comes lots of critters, and the kids have been bringing me their discoveries, either to ask me what it is, or to ask me to put it in the butterfly pavillion to keep it. I allowed a couple of caterpillars to remain.

It seems that yesterday afternoon, after I had gone home, and my door was still open, a certain fifth grade student who goes to our after school day care program, found several fat tent caterpillars. He placed them in my net-like habitat, and left me a note that read: Dear Mrs. Gilmore. I found some more catapillers. I put them in the cage. He signed his name.

How sweet (said with a note of sarcasm) ... now there are two tent caterpillars cocooning in the habitat, with three more looking to do the same. Pesty, leaf-eating caterpillars that will turn into little reddish brown moths in three weeks...

I just don't have the same heart for these little ones as I did the polyphemus. Maybe it's because there are thousands of the tent caterpillars and they are so easy to find. Just walk anywhere outside and you'll step on one or one hundred. What a mess they make in the parking lot and on the sidewalks.

They cause unsightly defoliation of a tree when numerous, although trees usually recover from the onslaught and put out new leaves. You've seen them: after they hatch from their egg mass of up to 400 eggs, they build a silken nest in the crotch of a tree limb. They seem to prefere wild cherry, apple, crabapple, hawthorn, maple, peach, pear, and plum trees.

However, don't confuse them with the webworm, which weave their loose, webby nests around foliage in the tree. TC usually do their work in the early part of the season, while the unsightly webworms stake out later in the season.

Yippee! Yet, for the sake of education and the kids who found the little squirts in the first place, I will keep them, and we will use the cocoons as a topic for learning, only this time, we won't have to wait six months.

Do you see how students contribute to the teacher's learning? Look at the research I have to do so I can tell them about what they have found! Yes, I do direct them to the internet to do their own research, but not every kid has internet access, nor does every kid have a computer at home. Someday, yes someday, that will be as common as the TV is now.

Don't you think?

Polyphemus' First Flight

"There she is! There she is!" one of the second graders called out in her loudest voice. Immediately, every second grader was running toward me as I approached the playground, carrying the butterfly pavillion with the fully developed moth inside. Their teacher had told them I was coming in during their recess time (10 am), and that we would let the moth go at that time.

An hour earlier, I had noticed the moth trembling all over. I couldn't explain it except to wonder if it was just sensing the air, the strange noises, or was it a sign of restlessness and the need to fly. Or maybe even a greater, reproductive need?

She trembled once more as the kids admired her, before I unzipped the top of the pavillion to bring her out. First I had answered their questions. They wanted to hear how she could possibly have fit into the cocoon, how did she get out, did I watch her come out, and will she have babies?

I answered them all, including telling them that she needed to fly as soon as possible, to find a safe place to hide, and to find a mate. Then she would find a special tree on which to lay her eggs, and then she would die. They didn't like hearing that part.

I wanted them to learn her name: Polyphemus. I asked them to say it. Their first attempts were hilarious. One kid thought I said Jalapenos! I heard Mollypeemus... Pollapeemus... Pollypenus... yeah, the teacher and I had a chuckle or two over their attempts.

The kids all seemed to understand that this was a joyous occasion, and when she flew up to the tree, they all started clapping with no prompting. Totally spontaneous applause, an appreciation of beauty and the miracle of life, represented in the first flight of the Polyphemus moth.

Once she flew out of eyesight, the kids happily went on to the business of playing in the playground. I knew some of them would be looking for another fat green caterpillar to put into my butterfly pavilion. In fact, several kids have already brought me the tent caterpillars they've been finding all over the school grounds, and now there is a fully cocooned tent caterpillar at the top of my pavillion.

Later, my moth expert, who happens to live less than 40 miles away in Hillsborough, emailed me and said she usually lets her moths go in the evening, when there is less chance of the moth getting caught by a predator, like a bird.

I hadn't even thought about that! What if, while witnessing this wonderful event, a bird had swooped out of nowhere, and grabbed our moth right out of the air, flying away to share its find with its hungry chicks? That would not have been a pleasant turn of events, to say the least, although it would have lent itself to a discussion of the local food chain.

I'm glad we didn't wait 6 months while our caterpillar transformed into a beautiful moth, only to watch her get eaten up in an instant. Yet, those are the facts of life. Yes, those are indeed the facts of life.

In the 6th photo you can see the two girls who had found the fat green caterpillar back in October. They had a special reason to be happy: what they had thought was just a big, fat, green worm six months ago had changed into something beautiful that could fly.

I'm hoping that in the next month or two, one of those wide-eyed children will find another caterpillar. Or two or three!

Polyphemus Moth makes her debut!

Here she is! Ms. Polyphemus, a member of the Giant Silkworm Moth family. She is just under 20 minutes out of her cocoon. She's been in the cocoon since October 18 last fall. I first wrote about her in my blog back in October.

I took the cocoon with me last week on my trip to Alabama because at that time I had no idea when it would come out. I figured if it did emerge while in Alabama, I could let it go as these kinds of moths are native to the East Coast all the way up to Canada, and even as far west as Texas. I even purchased a butterfly pavillion while in Alabama to keep the moth in until I could release it.... seems like that was the best move I could have made.

I was expecting a Luna Moth. Luna caterpillars look much like Polyphemus caterpillars. I really wasn't sure which one I had based on the pictures I had in books and the ones I found on the internet. I knew I would have to wait for the day it emerged.

I had to display great amounts of patience keeping this critter. There were times when I completely forgot about it, during the cold winter months. I didn't worry about it until spring warmed up our region, about three weeks ago. That's when I became concerned whenever I did not hear any movement inside the cocoon. As long as I felt it wriggling and scratching inside, I knew it was alive.

However, these past three days, I thought it might have just died because for some reason it could not get out. I even thought about cutting it out, but then I remembered the story about the woman who tried to help the butterfuly out of its cocoon and the butterfly did not build up the strength it needed to spread its wings because it didn't have to work to get out. I don't know how true that story is, but the message wasn't lost on me. I did not touch the cocoon.

About 4:00 today, in my classroom, I remember hearing crunching sounds coming from the cocoon... never had I heard that before. So I took the cocoon home with me, and set it in the dining room. An hour later, I peeked in on it, and there was the moth already climbing up the stick I had glued the cocoon to. I ran for my camera and carried it outside while there was still enough outdoor light.

I took quite a few photos, many of them blurry because I did not have the camera on the correct setting for closeups. I was so excited that I had snapped several pictures without changing the settings. Finally, I realized my error and corrected it.

According to information I have found, the moths mate the same night they emerge from the cocoon. They do not eat as adults. The live for one week. The females live for two reasons: to mate and to lay their eggs. The males have only one reason to live. You have one guess.

I know she is a female because of the size of her antennae... male antennae are wider than females. Hers seemed quite narrow by comparison to pictures I've seen of the males. So, tomorrow, I will take her to school, show the kids, tell them some things about the moths, and then we'll let her go so she can get her life cycle going again.

Possibly I will get some photos of her release in the playground area where she was found as a fat green caterpillar just six months ago.

One more surprising fact... I read at one of the internet sites that Polyphemus moths often don't emerge from their cocoons until May!! I hope her early arrival does not mean she gets there before the rest of her species! Imagine going to the party and finding out that you had the wrong date, and no one was there but you.Now imagine that your entire future of generations relies on you arriving on time. If you are late, you leave no offspring. If you arrive too early, you leave no offspring. You have a one week window of life to do what you must do, and if you don't find your mate, you will leave no offspring.

That's what our Polyphemus moth is up against this week, and why I must let her go as soon as possible.

I took all the photos above with my own camera except for Pictures #1, and 16-19, which came from the following website:

http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/polyphemus_moth.htm

Cocoon Emergence at Last...Pictures at 8:00!

The moth has emerged and I'm taking pictures now ... it began to come out sometime between 4:30 and 5:00 pm this afternoon. I'm still in the middle of photographing the event... he looks great, but it's not a Luna after all. I think now it's a Polyphemus or Cecropia... will look it up asap. Come back later for the latest pictures.

It's beautiful!

Goodbye, Flat!

I took Flat with me to school today. You can imagine the questions from the kids. They thought he was a cool dude. I told them about him, and showed them the book, The Ghost Brigades, by John Scalzi. I explained it was science fiction for adults.

Two of the boys got so excited when they saw the cover of the book. I thought it was because it was a science fiction book, and that the space ship on the cover reminded them of Star Wars or some other movie, but after I asked one boy to tell me what he liked about the cover, he said, "It's a Sci-Fi book! Sci Fi!"

This little boy is Hispanic... but he recognized the Sci-Fi symbol on the cover... from the Sci-Fi channel, I think.

I did not take photos of Flat with the children, of course, to protect their privacy rights, but I did get pictures of him at various essential points in my classroom. He was exhausted from the day in my classroom.

Then, we said our goodbyes, and I packed the little guy up to go on to his next destination. He's on his way tomorrow...

Flat Scalzi is Here in Graham, NC!

Well, imagine my surprise when I got home last night and found in my mailbox none other than Flat Scalzi!!

I had been expecting him, and was hoping he'd get here in time for Easter Sunday, and he did.

The first thing I did after I introduced myself was to make the poor guy some new clothes. Actually, he needed only two new tee shirts: one, a Carolina Blue t-shirt to honor one of our great universities here, the one my son is attending, the University of North Carolina ("go Tarheels!"). And the other T in orangish yellow for Easter.

So I gave Flat a tour of my yard, then introduced him to my dogs. Max took to him right away. Considering Max and Misty had been away all week, living with my son in Chapel Hill while my husband and I made a five day trip to Foley, Alabama and back again, they were on the quiet side. Bringing a stranger into their home, and asking them to spend time with him, was asking for a little more than Misty was willing to give. Fortunately, there were no attacks. And the dogs didn't attack him either. Flat seemed to like the little dogs.

I brought Flat into my office room, and he noticed quite astutely that I was reading his flesh & blood counterpart's latest best seller, The Ghost Brigades.

Yes, I explained, in fact, I was able to catch up on some reading during the past five days. Now I am reading exclusively this novel until I complete it. I told Flat that I thought it was clever that John had developed a new convention symbol for dialogue communicated via the BrainPal. (for those who don't know what I'm talking about, the symbol for such dialogue looks like this:  ::Not unlike quotation marks, used in the same manner.::) In fact, I could have sworn Flat was communicating to me that way most of the time he was here.

I asked Flat what was his favorite part of visiting the Gilmore household.

::The weather, indeed. Spring is everywhere! Also, it's very peaceful and restful here. I think John and his family would love North Carolina:: he responded.

I apologized for not being able to take him anywhere exciting, like to a ballgame, or the Outer Banks, or even to our beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.

::No problem, Bea. Actually, it's nice not to do anything for a day or two. I like to kick back and blend in with nature once in awhile.::

He seemed to enjoy the Easter stuff I had ready for him, and said that he was glad I didn't give him any candy. I asked him why.

::Consider the needs of the envelope. I need to be flat. Saves on postage for you, too, if I don't weigh as much!:: he laughed.

He agreed to pose with me for a picture, which I had to take by myself. Still, it turned out pretty decent.

I asked him where he would like to go next. He whispered it in my ear.

::The rest of you will have to wait and find out where I show up next! Check out Teeisme57's blog to find out where I am. She's keeping a map of my travels as they are reported to her, I think.::

 

(Afterword: Tee's journal is updated periodically, so the link above will take you to her journal, but on any given day you may have to scroll down to the Flat Scalzi Tracker entry to find out where he is. It's still worth checking! For today, at least, he's at the top of her journal page. Bea)

Going To Alabama...

Just want to let everyone know that I am heading for Alabama this morning...

I won't be able to make any journal entries here, but I will have my paper journal with me.

My mother lives somewhere in the vicinity of Foley, Alabama, and my husband and I are going to visit her. Mostly it is to see how she is doing, to see if she is okay. I haven't seen her since the last time I went to Georgia, back when she lived in Georgia. That may well be over a year ago.

I've been talking to her over the cell phone, on the average about once every 3 weeks, and she tells me she is okay, but I need to see for myself. She is 72 years old. Four years ago, my father died, and since then she has had to face the challenge of living on her own. Two of her children, and a few of her adult grandchildren and great grandchildren, live in Georgia, two of her children, and a few adult and near-adult grandchildren, live in California, then there's me in North Carolina and her grandson, and a son who lives in Florida, off and on, probably more on than off. She has grandchildren and great grandchildren in Connecticut and Arizona. Her own brothers and sisters, are spread out in Connecticut, a brother in Georgia, and a sister in California.

Basically, this means she has no family living in Alabama. That is my concern. I know she will be making friends, but I want to meet them too. I want to know who's going to take care of my mother if she gets sick, who's going to call me if she needs me and she doesn't think about to make that call. I want to know that someone near her, who cares for her in any sense of the word, but hopefully in the Christian sense at least, will call on her and ask her how she is, invite her to join them for dinner, or do something in a social way with them. I want to see if the place where she lives is "safe" - relatively speaking, to make sure she has all the basics, that even though she has abandoned everything she ever held dear in her life until her husband died, that she is still capable of taking care of herself.

Her welfare is a family concern. No one has yet to see where she is living, so they will know more after I've been there.

I'm hoping to find that she is, indeed, well. That she has enough money to pay her bills and buy her food and keep her home warm or cool throughout the year. I'm hoping she has already found doctors and dentists to replace the ones she has left behind Georgia. I'm hoping many things for her, which is why I pray for her every day.

I've asked the Lord for traveling mercies, so if you all would pray for me and my family, I would appreciate it. It will take us about 12 hours to drive there, though we are not going to try and make it all in one day.

I'm taking the cocoon with me... yes, it's still a cocoon, and though the little critter inside is very active, it hasn't shown any sign of chewing its way out yet. If it does  come out while we are traveling, I will take pictures of it, then let it go. Giant Silk Moths are at home anywhere in the southeast. Alabama isn't too far west that it couldn't find a mate during its week-long adult life-span.

Good news: Flat Scalzi is heading for North Carolina!! If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out Coelha's journal entry. I think it will be a fun visit, and I may even get to take him to school with me. I know he'll love the fish pond. Too bad he couldn't go with me to Alabama... he might have lightened the trip for me. At any rate, I suppose I will try to finish the book written by his flesh-and-bones counterpart. Then we can have something to talk about. I promise that he will have a relatively peaceful visit... after reading about some of his past escapades (warning: adult content at that link inolving dolls!!). I think he will need a rest!! LOL!  TTFN, bea