Five Minute Story — Observant
Every Friday I join a community of bloggers for Five Minute Friday. One word prompt, five minutes. And I literally write it in 5 minutes. The prompt this week is … Observant.
I miss my students, especially at recess time. It is a time that they are the most observant and their curiosity is at its highest. It is our job as the teacher to engage them in the world around them. I remember one day that the kids were playing as usual and we teachers were watching them climb, and run and chase and engage with themselves. I heard a scream from the students, and I ran towards the direction of the voices. There on that NE DC playground, there stood a deer.
The deer wandered on the grass and then was confused as to how they should leave out of the gate to go out the playground. The kids startled the deer, the deer startled the kids. It was a time out of my busy day that I couldn’t help, but sit and be observant. I saw the kids stand still, be observant and watch the deer find its way out of the gate, to the cheers of my students. A moment that lasted a matter of a minute, but felt much longer. It was a connection between man and animal that I would never forget.
Like typical 4 year olds, they had so many questions. “How did the deer get there?” “Was it a boy or a girl?” “Could they touch the deer?” “Was the deer brown or tan?” “Who was faster, the fastest boy in the class or the deer?” “Can we draw the deer for journal?’ It was such an innocent conversation between me and the kids that grew into a lesson in the classroom about our relationship with humans with deer. It opened up the door to complete deer footprints and create a deer craft and to learn facts about deer.
I admired the pure curiosity of my students. Their observant nature turned into pure creativity and stillness, that led their adult students to be captured in their world for a moment. I believe it was a message from God to take a tip from the kids and be observant with the world around us. The world that God created, the world we should enjoy.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork (Psalm 19:1).”
