Erika Miranda's fifth and sixth graders at Sierra Foothill Charter School have been studying Greek Mythology all year. The class turned four of their favorite mythology stories into scripts and performed them on Tuesday, April 12, 2016 for the student body and family and friends. The plays were "Perseus and Medusa," "How the Seasons Came to Be," "Echo and Narcissus," and "How Spiders Came to Be." The performances included great narrating and acting, clever staging, and wonderful costumes and props.
In "How Spiders Came to Be," Arachne (Celianna Lee, in purple) is a master weaver who brags that she is better than the gods. Athena (Bianca Rios, center) overhears and challenges Arachne to a weaving contest. When Arachne's finished piece turns out to be just as good, if not better, than Athena's, Athena turns Arachne into a spider so that she can continue to weave, but cannot brag about it.
In "Perseus and Medusa," Perseus tells his king that he can bring back the head of Medusa as a gift for the King's future wife. Perseus is afraid of what he's gotten himself into until Hermes comes with gifts of shoes to make him soar, a helmet to make him invisible, a sword and shield he can use as a mirror. Perseus comes across three witches who share one eye. He tricks them into telling him where Medusa lives. Once he finds her, Perseus (Allex Smith) uses his sword and shield as mirrors to keep from looking directly at Medusa (Kaeli Sheffield) and turning to stone. He successfully brings her head back to his king who accidentally looks at her head directly and turns to stone.

In "How the Seasons Came to Be," Demeter loves her beautiful daughter Persephone so much, she rarely lets her out of her site. On a rare occasion when she does, Hades comes to take her as his bride.
Distraught, Demeter (Malte Salonen) urges Zeus (Malachi Shelton) to make it right.

Zeus send Hermes into the underworld to retrieve Persephone, but Hades is in love and Persephone says she is being treated well.
Hermes (Gabriel Walters, center) figures out a solution. Persephone (Jaidin Sullens, in red) will stay with Hades (Nayo Rhoan) for six months out of the year during which time the earth is cold and the days are short. She will spend the other six months with her mother, at which time plants will grow and days will be longer.

In the final play, "Echo and Narcissus," Echo is a chatterbox who irritates Hera when she comes to Earth in search of her husband, Zeus. Hera becomes so impatient with all of Echo's talking that she makes it so that Echo can only repeat what others say.
In walks the beautiful Narcissus (Tadd Sexton) who knows that everyone loves him for his beauty. Echo (Bianca Rios) loves him, too, but can only repeat what Narcissus says which he finds very annoying. As he gets a drink from the pond, he sees his reflection for the first time. Not knowing that it is himself, he tells the reflection how beautiful he is. Echo repeats this, and Narcissus falls in love with himself.

The plays were well-written, well-rehearsed, and very entertaining. The fifth and sixth graders' fellow students at SFCS and their friends and family were all very impressed.
The fifth and sixth grade cast of the Greek Mythology plays.

Sierra Foothill Charter School is a free, non-profit, TK-8 public school. For more information, contact the office at (209) 742-6222 or visit SFCS’s website: sierrafoothillcharterschool.org. To stay up to date on all the latest happenings, “like” SFCS on Facebook.