Given the proximity of Earth Day and the Mariposa Butterfly Festival, Sierra Foothill Charter School celebrated spring with a wide variety of special activities led by students, staff, and volunteers on Friday, April 29, 2016.
Out in the Learning Garden, Charli McCord of Dolci Vita Ranch brought a few pigs and a goat from her ranch. A few home school students also brought a chicken and a goat to show.

On the blacktop courtyard, Teacher Andrea Contreras and Aide Ana Reyes ran a station where students could cut create butterfly masks. Ms. Miranda's fifth and sixth graders ran a number of stations where students learned facts about flowers, endangered animals, Native American culture and how to make an origami crane. They then answered a question or finished their origami piece in order to win tickets.
Here, Sayer Harry (sitting) shows school mates Khalil Neogy, Natalee Marundee, and Cole Silva how to make an origami crane.

As they participated at various stations, students earned tickets they could exchange for strawberries, orange slices, or other produce at the Raw Roots Farm station.
Here, Devon Foster exchanges tickets for strawberries with Lauren Gliken.

In the multipurpose room, students made owls out of cardboard tubes and construction paper; looked at cells under microscopes with the help of a UC Merced scientist and a grad student; wrote pledges on paper leafs and apples and hung them on a paper tree; and learned how to make a straw launcher using recycled plastic bottles and tubing.
With the help of SFCS board member and UC Merced Assistant Professor Caroline Frank, Mason Sinclair looks at cells of local plants under a microscope.

Out on the grassy playground, student options included participating in a recycling relay race; playing in and creating more bubbles; checking out a bug terrarium complete with poster highlighting facts about the bugs; and participating in an exploding watermelon experiment.
Parent Volunteer Marrisa Maxey assists Danny Specht in adding rubber bands around a watermelon. The experiment involved seeing how many rubber bands it would take to cause the watermelon to explode.

There was also a nature walk and musical entertainment (two students playing their electric guitars).
Students loved the variety of activities and the fun filled afternoon focused on local nature and recycling.

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.