Magic, Witches, Fairies Oh, My!

First graders in the bilingual program at Centro Education Leonardo da Vinci are deep into their second semester project - Fairy Tales.

Some of the project objectives are: opportunities for students to express themselves orally, kinesthetically and musically with an emphasis on imagination and creativity; view literature as a source of entertainment to encourage reading and a life passion for; explore the differences between real versus imagination; and formulation of hypothesis;


The ways the first graders have been accomplishing these goals during English time is through exploring the components of fairy tales, dramatic play with dress-up clothes, conducting magic experiments, and analyzing the classic fairy tale The Tin Soldier as well as reenacting the story using handmade puppets.



Yet, other things have been happening outside the students’ fully understanding. Decorations keep magically appearing in the classroom, they had a visit from a bad witch, and story time with the fairy Blue Butterfly.


The students’ reactions to these mysteries have been a pleasant surprise. They were so quick to believe a mystical creature or being decorated the classrooms that spontaneous and energetic clue hunts were sparked. Everything around them became a possible clue. Marks in the cement were now fairy footprints, a thin twig was a stick from a witch’s broom, and a frog was the witch in disguise.


All previous reality was in question. Why is this? Why are they so easily swept away into this imaginary world?

According to Piaget, the first graders are at the end of the preoperational stage of cognitive development. In this stage children form ideas based on their perceptions and over generalize based on limited experience. Whereas in the next stage concrete operational ideas are based on reasoning and children limit thinking to objects and familiar events.

Although, without fully comprehending the students’ reactions and their expressions of imagination and creativity that stemmed from, it stays a mystery. Perhaps it really is magic after all and the mysteries of a young child’s heart.

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