The kids at Ashburn Elementary School in Virginia got to experience a live nature show earlier this week after a mother duck and her fourteen ducklings were escorted through the school building from the enclosed courtyard where the duck had laid her eggs.

Could there be anything cuter than a brood of ducklings waddling behind their mother?

The mother duck apparently thought the enclosed courtyard was an excellent place to lay her eggs, safe from all predators (minus school children) because this was her second Spring to hatch her ducklings at this location.

Last year, she hatched twelve eggs in the school courtyard and was similarly escorted into the wild once her ducklings were old enough to leave the nest.

Word has apparently gotten around in the duck community because a second duck has also made a nest in the same courtyard this Spring and its ducklings are preparing for their grand exit soon.

I hope the school teachers at Ashburn took the opportunity to read one of my favorite picture books, "Make Way For Ducklings," to commemorate the ducks' reenactment as they make their way into the big wide world outside the walls of the school!