A 5th grader came into the classroom in the morning with a big smile and carrying a shoebox.
“Hey, look what I have”, he said, as he lifted the lid of the box. Instantly, a chipmunk leaped out of the box and onto the floor. The previous night the janitor has polished the floor to a high shine and it was slippery. The panicked animal ran as fast as its terror could charge it but it made no progress across the floor. A ring of excited, noisy children closed around the desperate little thing to try and recapture it. The boy who brought it was closest and reached to grab it. It turned in a flash and bit his out-stretched finger. He grabbed it nevertheless and put it back in the box.
His finger was deeply cut and dripping blood. I took him to the office where they bandaged him and called a parent to come and get him. They didn’t have a record of a recent tetanus shot. Exciting beginning to a day in grade 5.
