The Orca class got an invitation to participate in an International Fairy Tea Party.

Schools in 70 countries around the world were all going to have a tea party on the Fall Equinox.

We put a sticker on the map for all of the different countries.

We got a letter from a fairy, written in strange writing on a leaf. We decided to write back to the fairies. We discussed what would get the fairies to read out letters. We decided they needed to be pretty and have sparkles.

We talked about what we know about fairies.

"Maybe they have magic." -Taylor

"I know, like special gold." -Ellie

"They can fly." -Sebastian

"They find jewels." -Patrick

"They have magic wands and live in a castle all made of pink because that's their favorite color."

-Miles

"They can use their magic to make people fly." -Lachlan

"They have leaves." -Stella

"I haven't seen any. I've never seen any because they are hiding." -Luca

"They live in a castle." -Roman

The children also said they live in trees that are brown, in a garden, in a fairy garden, and sometimes in a fairy house. One child said fairies are girls and wizards are boys.

"And, of course, they also have a king and a queen and a seller who sells crowns to the fairies. Just the king nd queen wear crowns. The others receive their orders." -Miles

The children thought fairies eat seaweed, beans, water and leaves.

We looked at many different pictures of fairies. Some were girls, and some were boys. Some looked real, and some were just drawings or paintings. Some fairies even looked like bad fairies.

We discussed where fairies might live on our playground. Some ideas were the bean tipi in the garden, in the tall grass next to the bridge on the playground ("They're really small and might be near the bottom."), in holes or dirt holes. They might live in castles that are small around the playground, or on a broken branch with two eyes ("They need to keep their eyes peeled."). One child said that fairies are dusty, and another said "fairy dust."

We went looking for a mailbox to place our letters to the fairy. The children thought the hole in this old apple tree was a perfect mailbox.

Some children wondered how the fairies would know to come look there, so they built a village for the fairies at the bottom of the tree.

The next day a group oif children went out to see if the fairies had taken the letters. The decided to take their magnifying glasses so that they could see fairy clues.

They looked very carefully and saw fairy dust! The fairies had been there!

They hurried inside to get the step stool so they could try to look into the hole. The letters were gone!

We got ready for the fairy tea party. We made grape wands. We had to think about the pattern of grapes on each wnd.

The day of the party arrived. Everyone wore their best fairy clothes, and borrowed wings and crowns from dress ups if they needed them. We drew our magic wands and wrote what kind of magic they have.

Fairies are very fancy little creatures, so we wanted to be fancy, too.

We had a face painting station where we each got to paint our own faces. This was really fun.

Some of us also painted the Teaching Parent's faces so they would be fancy, too.

It took a lot of concentration to look in the mirror and try to get the paint where you wanted it on your face.

Ready for the tea party!

It was amazing how different we looked once we were turned into fairies!

At the magic potion sttion we had all kinds of wonderful things to make magic potions from.

There were different colored waters, and sparkles, and flower petals.

This lovely potion is for turning people into fairy princesses!

There was also a magic wand station. First you found just the right stick. Then you wrapped it with sparkly yarn.

Wrapping the stick was hard work, but it really made the magic strong.

If you wanted to, you could play in the Fairy Band. We had lovely fairy-type music playing, and we played along with it.

In Fairy Land there are magical bubbles, so we made lots of them. It was magical!

And, of course we danced through the rainbows. The tea party was held in the decorated tree house. There were all kinds of treats including the grape wands we had made, and little fairy cakes decorated with flowers. It was a wonderful day!