Mirabella the Monarch’s Magical Migration

More about this book: This children’s chapter book is full of rich, conceptual drawings that complement a story that grew and grew as the students continued to inspire me to write new pages to match their wonderful drawings. It is a particularly important book, I’m glad to see that being green is a topic that finally has finally reached critical mass in the mainstream consciousness. And Mirabella the Monarch illustrates many subjects from metamorphosis to migration to a passion for making the world a better place. The book also includes a page of challenges to help kids find hidden surprises in the story.

The mission of the Montessori schools is: “Montessori is a method of education that is based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play. In Montessori classrooms, children make creative choices in their learning, while the classroom and the teacher offer age-appropriate activities to guide the process.” Therefore, this project gave the students the opportunity to apply these principles to their learning and everyday life—literally creating a dream and turning it into a reality. This project also sowed a lot of collateral creations, such as: a place and character naming contest, butterfly gardens, musical theme songs for the characters in the book, the class photo pictured above, an illustrator book signing, reading month, mosaic tile wall, Glow Show black light art display, and best of all a giant book celebration where the student illustrators signed their page for all the staff, students and community members. It was incredible.

Here is a short slideshow about the project at Parker Woods Montesorri by art teacher Suzanne Nall. It was used to introduce the project to the parents.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the 559 students and their parents. Thanks to the staff of Parker Woods Montessori; in particular, principal Whitney Simmons for her commitment to educating not only students but staff and parents, the art teacher Suzanne Nall for her artistic vision that is apparent in every illustration, PTO member and project coordinator Nuria Lopez, who’s desire to make the world a better place for our children fueled every step, dedicated parent Allyson Stone-Weil for the bookmarks and helping whenever needed, teacher Beth Schlick for organizing the celebration events, Jodi Weber for writing the grant and photos by teacher and lepidopterist Judy Ganance. Finally, thanks to the dozens of other volunteers who supported the project at each step. Hopefully, I honored everyone along the way.