Is it catching?

Sometimes a bug blows through our classroom like a hurricane, leaving germs and devastation in its path. Mrs. D and I listen to the coughing and the sniffling and nervously watch the tissues pile up in the trash cans. I've got a bit of a bug, and this is one bug that I hope is contagious.

These are a few of my favorite things . . .


a Chrysanthemum Stone that my parents brought back from China a few years ago




a fern fossil (the early beginnings of my rock bug!)

When I was about 5, I visited my grandparents in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and I was thrilled to find a bin of these in the giftshop at the bottom of the inclined plane.





a gift of amethyst from my parents' travels to Colorado








an ammonite, a Christmas gift from my brother




My friends laugh that there aren't many people who would get excited about receiving rocks for Christmas. I hope they're wrong because I just distributed 23 rock gifts.

"Oh, it's a hairy rock!" "Look! Mine is hairy, too!" "Where did you get all these?!"

It's become a holiday tradition. Every year, I give each child a rock, a mineral, or a fossil. I make informational cards and package each rock in its own specimen bag. Everybody needs a rock, and I'm hoping to spread the disease!






It just might be working. We received a generous holiday gift toward materials for our classroom, and one of the children suggested, "We could buy more rocks . . ."

Huge thanks to Mrs. D for giving the children boxes in which to store their burgeoning collections! A second grader recently told me she and her family had visited IKEA to buy more shelves . . . for her rocks!