Remi’s Adventure
Written by Julia Markert
Summary
This is a story of an adventurous girl named Remi. Her favorite part of the day is walking to and from school discovering the outdoors. One day Remi was walking to school when she stepped on what seemed to be a bird egg. Remi found two remaining eggs. She told Mrs. Willow, her school teacher. As a class, the students learn about the eggs and take care of them during their hatching process. Remi discovered her love for the ecosystem and the community she has found.
Keywords: Balsam, Sporulating, Phenology, Ecosystem
Remi is a small but brave girl. She spent most of her time thinking during her walks to and from school. Whether that was about her friends or family, it usually had to do with the changing nature around her as the school year went on. She noticed the changes in seasons before they were even taught in school because she could experience it firsthand on long walks.
She would go to school every day with questions to ask her teacher, Mrs. Willow. Remi thought this was reasonable to do because, well… it’s school. Remi would ask questions like
“Why can I see the moon some mornings and not others?” or “I came across Mrs. Figs flower plant this morning, and it’s DEAD…What on earth did she do?”
One spring day, there was a balsam smell in the air and Remi had her new white sneakers on but was a bit nervous because she was so adventurous. She liked to jump in puddles, dig in the mud, and eat even the grass. She wanted to explore every crack and crevice that her little eyes could see. She put her shoes on and headed out the door. There were always sporulating ferns at Mrs. Figs’ house.
The sun was shining, and as Remi walked her regular route to school, she whistled to the birds, and they would sing back to her. As she pulled her backpack strap over her shoulder, she felt and heard a crunching noise. She stopped and refused to put her foot all the way down as she knew she had stepped on something that wasn’t meant to be stepped on. She slowly raised her foot and squinted her eyes because she didn’t know whether or not she wanted to look. Her eyes widened in pure fear. Remi screamed and said
“What have I done?”
She stepped on a… on a…. a bird egg. She broke the shell, and her sneaker had smeared the yolk on the cement. She panicked, and the last thing on her mind was the mess on her new white shoes. She tried to gather herself, but then, her eye caught two other bird eggs very similar to the one that she stepped on. They were about 5 feet from each other and had a blue tint to them. She looked around and grabbed the two eggs.
Remi decided to get out her lunch pail and put the two eggs in a plastic container with her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She thought of the sandwich as a cushion for the eggs.
Remi got to school and was hesitant to tell Mrs. Willow about her adventure this morning because she couldn’t admit what she had done. She thought to herself,
“What can I do to save these eggs? I mean I have to tell Mrs. Willow, but what would she do? Would she tell me to take them outside and leave them without a mother? I can’t. I just can’t.”
During lunch, she sat next to her friends Rose, Lilly, and Rosemary, and she got out her lunch pail and decided she was going to tell her friends what happened this morning finally.
Remi told her three friends, and their jaws were wide open in surprise, and they all encouraged her to tell Mrs. Willow because they wanted these eggs to make it even more than I did. And that’s why I love my friends so much.
After lunch, Remi finally told Mrs. Willow what happened. She got out her lunch pail and kept her sandwich in there because she wanted to keep the eggs safe. Mrs. Willow immediately took the eggs. She said to me.
“Remi, thank you for being so caring and letting me know what happened.” I have a book that we can use to identify the type of egg and do what we can to save them.”
Mrs. Willow took pictures of the bird eggs for students to use and got out their science books to identify the egg. Remi was determined to be the one to identify it. She looked through several pages and there it was… the House Finch looked exactly like the eggs.
We discovered that the eggs need to be in warm conditions and rotated to keep the eggs from overheating. Mrs. Willow discussed briefly the phenology and how the climate affects when birds lay eggs.
We kept the eggs safe throughout the school year, and when they finally hatched, I felt like I gained so much love and knowledge for the development of nature and the love and caring it takes for everything to grow around us. Our ecosystem is a community that needs to be respected. Such as Mrs. Figs’ flowers needed love and care like the birds, which comes with every aspect of life.
