Greetings, Mariposa families!

I’m writing to you from the Fairy House Workshop, where your children are in the midst of building charming homes for their magical friends. First they drew architectural plans for their buildings. This week they’re using moss, clay, shells, twigs, pebbles, and other natural materials to bring their drawings to life, and their creativity is running wild. I’m seeing tables, diving boards, ovens, a driving bathtub, a seesaw… These fairies will have every amenity they could dream of!

Since investigating Selkies, we have been immersed in the world of magical creatures. We’re learning learning legends and stories through reading a range of books. The illustrations in some of these books, like Backyard Fairies by Phoebe Wahl (of Little Witch Hazel fame!) have inspired emergent art projects. Some of these activities have been more structured, like working on Phoebe Wahl’s fairy coloring pages, which builds pre-writing skills like grip strength and control, as well as lengthening focus. Some are completely open-ended and student-directed, like building fairy houses out on the yard, which has showcased the amazing growth in Mariposa students’ ability collaborate and problem-solve collectively.

Mariposa children continue to be fascinated by the natural world! Investigating fairies has ignited curiosity around flowers. We used Montessori materials to teach about the parts of a flower. After learning the names of the different parts of a flower, students built a “parts of a flower” puzzle and made “parts of a flower” books. We turned petals into paint by pounding them in a mortar and pestle and mixing them with water. We collected petals and used them to make clothes for fairy paper dolls. We also made observational paintings of flowers from our yard at school.

There has been lots of enthusiasm about the school garden, especially after our garden clean up day! Sending a warm “Thank you!” to families who were able to participate. The following Monday, Mariposa students were excited to create signs to inform other children about how to treat the new plants. They decided on their messages and supported each other in figuring out spelling and designing graphics that younger children in other classes could understand.

Rebecca visited our classroom as part of a campus-wide Certified Wildlife Habitat Project. Did you know our campus is a certified wildlife habitat? To meet the criteria, we have to have sources of food and water, places for animals to raise their young, places for animals to find cover, and we need to use sustainable practices on campus. Each classroom chose one component of the criteria to study. Our class learned about flowers as sources of food for pollinators.

We’ll indulge in open-ended creative projects, spending outdoors in this beautiful weather, and reading stories in our last couple weeks. Coming up soon, we’ll begin to talk about Kindergarten and honor the end of our year together. Please join us for our end of the year celebration on Thursday, June 6th from 9:15-10:30 am.

Scenes from around Mariposa: