True Confessions of a Preschool Teacher

My hermit crabs are dead. All three of my hermit crabs have moved on to greener...well, sandier, pastures. The first one bit it before Christmas. I wasn't too surprised. He was looking a bit "off" from the beginning. The other two were victims of the snow events. And the fact that I refused to drive out in the snow to water some hermit crabs. It might make me mean, but I have the lives of my children to consider. Well, that and the very hard decision to get out of my pajamas.

So, the guys are gone and the kids in my class have NO IDEA. Why? Because I have left all the shells in the tank. In case you were unaware, when a hermit crab dies, they come out of their shell. I don't know the reason behind this, except maybe it's their last payback for all that non-watering. It's a freaky thing to see a hermit crab skeleton staring you down. And smelling like, well, like dead crab. Anyway. I'm just not at a place in my life where I can answer 101 three year old questions about the dead hermit crabs. So. I'm pretending like they are still alive. Maybe not actively pretending they are alive. More like passively not mentioning they are dead. My crabs were never a rowdy bunch to begin with and usually spent most of the daylight hours hiding under a big seashell. So, it's not overly suspicious that they aren't moving around too much. Do I feel a *little* bad when the kids yell, "Ms. Kelly, I think the crab is getting ready to move"? Yeah. A little. But it's not really a motivating kind of pain...

I felt much better when the teacher across the hall confessed she was doing the same thing. She confessed after another teacher closed up her room for her one day and said, "And I put your crab up and gave him some water." And then the hysterical laughter ensued until she could spit out that he was dead.

It's like one big giant preschool scam.