Murder.

The first few days of school, we had an unwelcome class pet in our room. A small innocent fly was buzzing around the class distracting the new sprouts as well as the teachers. It would land on children causing a frenzy of smacks and whacks in attempt to destroy it. It would land on my head and I would try (unsuccessfully) to ignore it crawling on my hair.

In a meager attempt to cease the constant distraction of the fly, I christened it the ‘learning bug’ and said it was just in kindergarten to learn. Well like a fly on flypaper, the name stuck. From then on, whenever an intruder entered the class, you were sure to hear ‘look, a learning bug!’ from the mouths of any sprouts who could see it.

As the cool autumn days have begun creeping up on us, the flies seemed to disappear… until today. During a lesson, with all the children on the carpet, I spotted an interloper. I tried to ignore it, but the kids all saw it and began swatting at the ‘learning bug’.

After dismissing the class to their tables for an activity, I saw Jenna approach me with quite a sad face.

“What’s wrong Jenna?” I asked.

“Somebody murdered the learning bug,” she whimpered.

“Oh no! That wasn’t very kind. Well, hopefully he was done learning,” I offered. I really wasn’t sure how to reply.

Farewell sweet learning bug, here’s hoping you’re in a better place and don’t come back until next year.