The children in the PreK 2 class at Sacred Heart Villa have experienced a fairy invasion. It began by the reading of The Fairy Herb Garden Books by Kimberly Gallagher. The children started pretending that fairies were visiting the gardens. This play went beyond the stories and gardens to encompass classroom areas both inside and out. Loose parts became fairy accessories, mud kitchen creations became fairy cakes and potions. The children used herbs pinched from growing plants, mud, leaves and collected rain water to concoct the potions. This play blossomed into outdoor explorations of our gardens and natural spaces to find fairy treasure, increasing the joy the children felt when outdoors. The teachers noted the development of the “academic” skills of literacy (storytelling), math (sizing), science (biology) and problem solving that occurred when “fairy play“ was happening. The Pre K2 class then discovered fairy homes with help from their art classes and a donated manufactured fairy garden. The children began to construct homes for fairies inside and outside.
A field trip to Litzsinger Road Ecology Center had been planned. When the class found out about the trip, their discussion of fairies expanded to include LREC. Upon arrival at LREC, the children listened to Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane, read by LREC Volunteer Educator, Linda Kram, just to get their juices flowing! Litzsinger gave them natural landscapes to find evidence of fairies and to construct homes out of nature!