Mother Nature made an appearance Saturday to celebrate the arrival of spring and Mother’s Day at the second annual Redwing Pond House Preschool Spring Fair.
Christine Boulay, an Ansonia Nature Center volunteer, said she made her own dress, a Medieval-style gown with a print featuring flowers and hummingbirds.
She roamed the preschool fairgrounds offering with a basket offering children treats, which turned out to be plastic spiders, bugs and other creatures.
The real Mother Nature also made an appearance, bringing cool, blustery weather and a threat of showers — but that didn’t dampen the fun.
The fair was a fundraiser and student recruitment event for the Redwing Pond House Preschool, which is nearing the finish of its first full year.
Registration for next fall is still open for the preschool, according to Director Jackie Lema, who called her job running the program for the Ansonia Nature Center “my dream come true.”
She explained that instruction at Redwing is nature-based.
Children ages 3 to 5 are encouraged to explore nature by poking around the pond, woods and meadows at the 150-acre nature preserve.
“Our goal is to have them appreciate the environment that they’re in and that they’re not too young to investigate things,” she said.
For example, recently the teachers at the school taught a unit on owls, which included hiking into the woods looking for evidence of owls, producing owl art, reading about owls and writing about owls.
“We have great horned owls nesting on the property,” Lema said.
The lessons were capped off with a visit from Nature Center Assistant Director Alison Rubelmann, who brought along a live owl for the children to see.
“This week we were doing spring and signs of spring,” said Jen Shuart, a preschool teacher whose daughter was a student.
She said the children observed turtles in the pond and robins making nests, then did Mother’s Day craft projects and tended to their plantings in the preschool’s garden and greenhouse.
“We had a really great week this week,” she said.
Lema said the school opened for a four-month trial period in January 2012.
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“In September we opened for our first school year,” she said.
Making the most of its association with the nature center, the teachers and students spend almost as much time outside as they do in the classroom.
“Our curriculum is heavily based on what is happening outside,” Lema said.
Even in the winter, for instance, the weather didn’t keep them inside while there were birds and other woodland creatures leaving tracks in the snow to find and identify.
In fact, children enrolled there all bring a change of clothes just in case.
“We are not afraid of getting dirty,” Lema said.
But the teachers are all trained early-childhood educators, and the curriculum is designed to prepare the children for kindergarten, as well as teach them about the natural world outside their windows.
Lema said there are lots of art projects, socialization exercises to help the children develop interpersonal skills for being part of a community, and academic lessons for literacy, math and science education.
The spring fair featured booths by nature-oriented vendors and other child-focused programs and activities.
Local magician Chris Lengyl performed a magic show, recruiting young fairgoers as his assistants.
Students from the “That’s Showbiz” dance studio in Shelton gave a demonstration.
Officers from the Ansonia Police Department offered safety tips suitable for youngsters. And an Ansonia Nature Center staff member brought over a playful python for a visit.
For more information about Redwing Pond House Preschool, visit the website or call the school at 203 – 734-7974.
