Snakes in the Library!

First some lovely pictures tho--I took this last week on my way to school (yes, I'm driving!!) of the shrimp boat out in the ocean...we had yummie fresh shrimp this weekend from Katie's Seafood Market (check out their link on the side. It is such a peaceful drive in the morning along Seawall Blvd. to school. This is my view for most of the drive.

And now let me set the scene with some pictures of the Library...so you can see where I work and where I was sitting in relation to the Snake in the Library...

The first picture is the reading area, I sit in the rocker and read stories to the children who sit on the large carpet. Next, are my 'work' tables...if we do activities and things...finally is the circulation desk where the students check out their books.

Well, this morning Kindergarten and I are sitting at the carpet and are reading our story when a student says, "Mrs. Worsham, look a snake!" Sure enough, I glance over...and there it is! Just slitherin' along on the floor...headed straight for me! Luckily, I've had lots of school and could tell what kind it was right away (a Rough Earth Snake) so I just went over and picked him up and went in my office for a container. Then I thought..hmmm...probably not a good idea for a 5 year-old to think that they can just go pick up a snake if they see one. So, we had a teachable moment...in which I explained that I've seen these kind of snakes before and could identify it. I also explained that I knew it wasn't dangerous because of the size of it's head...so I explained how poisonous snakes have really large triangular heads and this one doesn't (of course we had to kind of pass him around and look at him a little bit closer then). So that was the day's excitement! Here he is our new Library Snake: