Spring Festival Description

Dear Families,

Your children, Kim, and I experienced Mother Wind, Sister Rain, Brother Wind, and Father Sun today. Unlike the parent & child festival, in which parents and faculty volunteered to portray the characters, today's characters lived in the children's imaginations. As we took our usual walk, we came upon a basket inside the teepee, with a glass bowl of seeds and many fiber planting pots filled with organic potting soil. Some children helped William plant the seeds as we sang "Mother Earth, Mother Earth, Take our Seed and Give it Birth." William let children know that, yes, Mother Earth wanted each child to take one home--and Kim would make sure the child took home a pot at the end of the morning.

As we continued our walk, William came across a watering can left by Sister Rain. William and interested children watered the seeds while we sang, "Sister Rain, Sister Rain, Shed thy tears to swell the grain."

After finishing our walk, and before we returned to our classroom, we observed Brother Wind make a surprise appearance. From a safe distance some children and I saw the heavy branch that had been hanging, broken, above the grass field finally plummet to the earth. I went and removed the orange rope and metal posts.

Inside, children discovered the loft decorated with a green silk along with a Maypole that Brother Wind left for us.

Father Sun left us Maycrowns hanging on the wreathe above the snack table. The children and teachers will decorate these crowns for children to take before Mayday.

The children and Kim danced two songs around the Maypole while I held the pole and sang. We will continue dancing the Maypole for four weeks or so after Spring Break.

We concluded the morning with an apron puppet show of a girl planting a seed in a garden by the forest. She sings for Mother Earth, Sister Rain, Father Sun, and Brother Wind to help nurture the seed. A flower grows and a butterfly visits the flower when summer comes.

The seeds in your child's pots are for a sort of cosmos particularly attractive to butterflies. I forget their exact name but call them Butterfly cosmos.

I will bring the Maypole to Maxwelton Beach when we gather over spring break (more details and reminders to come). It will be great to have some parents join us in the dances, and it would help me introduce slightly more complex Maypole dances to the children with parents acting as models. I save weaving and webs and complex dances for much older children.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde