To paraphrase the old saying, it takes a village to educate a child.
Today, we saw that in action as parents, grandparents, siblings, staff, faculty and students came together for the annual Kindergarten Fairy Tale Ball.
Every year kindergarten teachers Lisa Cornell and Caitlin Talan do a unit on fairy tales with their classes. They study fairy tales from around the world and look at different versions of the same stories. They examine the elements needed to make a fairy tale and draw pictures of their favorite characters. They even create their own stories.
Today, dressed as their favorite characters and aided by lots of volunteers, the students made magic wands and frogs, played Bingo using fairy tale words and built castles — or maybe they were candy houses like Hansel and Gretel found — out of graham crackers and decorated them with candies.
They sang a couple songs — including one they wrote themselves about fairy tales, then it was time for the big show.
A group of parents and grandparents, staff and faculty put on a pretty darn good performance of “A Wolf Tale,” the story about a wolf trying to find some food. Outsmarted by several fairy tale characters, he finally got the food he needed, thanks to Red Riding Hood’s generous grandma, who told him he only had to ask politely, because it’s always nice to share.
The parents were completely into their characters and the adults not in the play showed their support by singing along with the Wolf on his little signature tune.
These parents and grandparents and staff and faculty took time out of their days to put on a silly costume and make a goose of themselves for a group of appreciative children. They helped make crafts that encourage the child to use his or her imagination when they play. They helped the students celebrate their learning.
These volunteers are committed, supportive, caring and nurturing, and the children felt that. How can kids do anything but learn with people like this living in our Liggett village.
By Ron Bernas