Chasing Fairies in Mary Roberts Rinehart Nature Park

While some may only dream of seeing fairies, pupils at spent an afternoon hunting for them — and in essence learning about the outdoors.

The untraditional activity Friday sent about 30 students scurrying around , searching for five fairies and five dragonflies hidden in various spots throughout the nature park.

"I found a black one!" one excited pupil yelled holding up his map.

For students, the activity might have seemed like all fun and games, but for teachers, the untraditional activity in an outdoor setting provided much more, academically, socially and healthwise. 

"You can learn so much from being outside," said kindergarten teacher Barb Carrier, also a board member of the park. 

Environmental educators from led the activity, handing out maps of the park to about 30 kids. As pupils searched and found the hidden objects, they marked them off on the maps, along with trees and other interesting discoveries in the park.

Teachers said students look forward to the annual search for fairies and dragonflies, a magical idea that gets kids to look up close at nature and keeps imaginations open to a world of fairytales at the park. Two of the students were especially excited to visit the park as their grandparents live on the North Side in Rinehart's former house, Carrier said.

"It's wonderful because the children think of it as the fairy park," Carrier said.

The after-school program also has another goal: to provide pupils with an outdoor experience every other Friday afternoon.

"A lot of schools are evolving toward unstructured playtime," said April Claus, director of environmental education at Fern Hollow, who helped lead the group through the park.

Twice a month, teacher Brenna Halbedl, kindergarten teacher, said the pupils are taken on a new adventure led by volunteers at Fern Hollow. Sometimes activities take place indoors, but mostly, the kids spend time outdoors, exploring parks in the area, going on nature walks or playing games, she said.

After searching out the nature park,  were able to explore, climbing up hillsides, and into a hollowed-out tree, and running around a mulch-covered pathway. Some kids played with sticks, others searched for rocks, the kind of toys you can only find in the outdoors, teachers said. 

"Young children need unstructured time to learn on their own," Carrier said.