Remember back in the elementary days when you walked down to lunch following the ball bucket? The ball bucket was great, it held your basketballs, soccer balls, jump ropes and footballs. Not only that, as you walked out to a much anticipated lunch recess you would drop your lunch boxes in the bucket and they would be waiting for you back in the classroom. You didn't have to worry about a thing.
...Wow. That sounds great if YOUR STUDENTS REMEMBERED TO TAKE THEIR LUNCH BOXES/TUPPERWARE/SANDWHICH BAGS OUT AT THE END OF THE DAY!!!
There as been the weirdest, yuckiest, un-coverable smell in my classroom. And it isn't just the natural smells of 6th graders (that is coverable, thank you Febreeze) it is a moldy/dirt smell. The smell has been a mystery until this morning.
This morning I woke up with one goal in mind. Track and destroy the mold/dirt smell. I walked in the classroom, took a breath, became dizzy from the smell and began investigation. My student teacher, Sara, was there and she wanted the smell gone just as bad as I did.
We discussed that it could be a leak in the sink, then I looked at the ball bucket. BINGO. I shared my theory with Sara and went to the office for some latex gloves. When I got back Sara had pulled the ball bucket out from under the counter, she had a very disturbed look on her face and said, "Yup, this has to be it."
The smell was 100% stronger since the bucket was pulled out, it got worse once we took off several layers of coats and uncovered the culprits. Emphasis on the plurality of culprits.
We took out all of the balls and jump ropes and there was nothing left except for several pieces of tupperware containing blackish/greenish nasty mold. It looked and smelled like my students were attempting to make a sewer monster. I swear I thought one tupperware had grown worms. Seriously.
I picked up a piece of mold that was the size of a bouncy ball. THE SIZE OF A BOUNCY BALL! It looked like one of those fuzzy puff balls, except nasty and smelly and I had to hold it in my latex glove. Nas to the T people! NASTY!
Sara and I were running back and forth throwing away nasty mold that used to be food. Seriously, what heck students.
I came back from throwing a big chunk of mold in a sandwich bag away when Sara said, "I don't even know why I opened this. I shouldn't have"
Well, of course that peaked my interest and I had to look.
In it was a sandwich. Not just a little leftover piece, a WHOLE sandwich. I literally think that it was at least a month old. It was all mold, not one piece of white or wheat. It stank soooo bad. But the funniest part is, one of my students came in and said, "Smells like those clorox wipes. Are you cleanin? Smells like cleaning supplies."
There were several other lunch boxes with moldy food inside.
If you are wondering the reasons that I didn't check there in the first place here ya go:
1. I never had students do this before. I mean, usually parents are anal about their kids bringing back their lunch boxes/tupperware. As for the plastic sandwich bags, they usually throw them away on their way out to recess.
2. The smell was masked by several layers of coats until it got so bad it surpassed the coats.
3. The ball bucket was the last place I would look for a science project to be growing. But guess what, Miss Doll is teaching the 6th grade about microorganisms. What a fabulous coincidence, but Miss Doll did not want to use the moldy sandwich as an example. I don't know why she wouldn't.;) jk.
Mr. Billie really saved the day when he sprayed out our ball bucket and brought it back looking brand new and smelling fresh.
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