Capuano School’s Squirrel Class developed and presented their creation, “The Magical Forest,” for a special performance at the school.

One March morning, the sound of birdsong and musical flutes filled the Capuano School cafetorium. Ms. Snikeris’s Squirrel Class preschool performers waited patiently for the audience to settle and the lights to dim.

“Welcome!” said Ms. Snikeris to the assembled students, educators, and parents. Then the performance of The Magical Forest began.

The students wrote, workshopped, anManage Tagsd prepared The Magical Forest collaboratively with prompts and scaffolding assistance from Ms. Snikeris. Students were involved in every aspect of the show. Besides creating the story together, they painted the sets, chose the props and costumes, and rehearsed for two months before the performances for other Capuano students and educators.

In the story, the magical forest contains different creatures, people, and animals. Its trees grow different types of fruit all on the same tree. There is a talking broccoli tree, and another one that grows toys on its branches. One day, the blue and red crystals that fed all of the forest plants go missing. And so the quest to find them begins, with searches under the stars and sea, and around the snow.

As the students were writing the play, themes of kindness and teamwork emerged. For example, for the crystals to be found, all of the creatures and the audience needed to search together. The crystals are found. To celebrate, the audience was invited to sing and dance together with the Squirrel Class performers to the songs Pop See Ko, and Can’t Stop the Feeling.

The themes of teamwork extended to Ms. Snikeris’s colleagues. Ms. Snikeris sent the text of The Magic Forest to all Capuano classrooms, so educators and students would know in advance what to expect before watching the performance. The Capuano Early Childhood Center and several PK-8 schools across the district house public prekindergarten classrooms. Learn more about Early Education in Somerville Public Schools at the Early Education website: https://somerville.k12.ma.us/early-education-care-somerville.

At the end of the performance, the Squirrel Class performers waited for the audience to leave the cafetorium. Ms. Snikeris and the Squirrel Class performers then lined up and headed back to their classroom. They were happy and tired from dancing, and it was time for a snack.

— Abby Luthin, Grants and Communications Specialist