Catching Bumblebees

This actually happened back in May of this year. I'm just getting caught up. 😊 

Not all of my job as a tutor/paraeducator has been about learning lessons for education. Some of it has been unexpected opportunities to interact with students and create memories. On my second day in a row as a sub paraeducator at one of the schools in town, I was on recess monitoring duty. I saw a girl sitting on a bench by herself. I asked her if she was okay, and she said her legs were just tired. I tried to think of something to say to encourage her. I noticed bumblebees flying around and landing on clover blossoms at the edge of the playground area. I asked her if she had ever caught a bumblebee. Surprised, she said no. So I taught her how to crouch down and cup her hands over a bumblebee that had landed on a blossom and hold them there until she could feel the bee tickling her hands, trying to fly away. Then I told her to let it go. She was hesitant at first, but I encouraged her that the bumblebees wouldn't sting her. Then she had so much fun! She looked at every bee that had landed and put her hands over it until it wanted to fly away. 

Then two other girls saw what we were doing (I was catching them too) and I taught them how to do it too. I noticed that they went around looking all around the playground for bumblebees landing on flowers and cupping their hands over them. They had fun too! It made me really happy. 

The only bad part was that when I crouched down to catch a bee, the inside of one leg of my jeans got a rip in it! They were old, and had a weak place in the fabric. So now they're in the trash. lol

PS - If you try to catch bees, make sure that they are fat, fuzzy BUMBLEBEES and not the more sleek honeybees. They will sting you. Have fun!



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