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Turning Disgust into Delight, One Maggot at a Time
Once again, perception is reality.
Earlier today I was in my classroom with about a dozen students cracking acorns. We were circled around the big black tables I have in my classroom. Some students were sorting the bad nuts from the good nuts, others were rinsing them in water. I had two nutcrackers that were being used to crack open the tough outer shell and three big wooden mallets that kids were using to crush up the nut meat so that we could soak it in a jar.
There’s been a lot of talk about a zombie apocalypse and I just want them to be prepared to live off the land.
No, that’s not true. I’m a big fan of hands on learning, so I am always planning physical activities that give kids the opportunity to use tools, work together and see a tangible outcome. So we yesterday, we went outside to gather acorns from the schoolyard. Today we spent making acorn flour in order to prepare acorn pancakes for a school-wide potluck next week.
Fifteen minutes into this endeavor, there was a shriek. One lucky student had cracked open an acorn to find it filled up with maggots. Gross, wriggling, fat, white maggots. She dropped the acorn on the table and the maggots started squirming rapidly, as if they were trying to catch a bus.
