A festive way to celebrate May

COSTA MESA — A sea of white-clad families sat on blankets in the grass, watching children dance around the Maypole.

A folk band played as girls in white dresses and boys in all white — all wearing flowered headdresses — held hands around a Maypole topped with flowers.

“It’s festive,” said Morgan Capristo, 14. “It’s fun that all the people in the community can come together and celebrate spring and May.”

The Waldorf School of Orange County, a private school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade on Canyon Drive, hosted its annual May Faire Saturday afternoon for its students, parents and the community to come out and celebrate.

Children had their faces painted, played games, got up close to sheep, goats and a bunny in a petting zoo and made miniature bird nests out of wool at the craft booths.

Parents also got to check out a Waldorf right-of-passage for its eighth-grade students with a display set up of all the students’ projects.

The students started the projects last year, while still in seventh grade, and worked for an entire year researching their topic, working with a mentor and actually participating in what they were studying, said eighth-grade teacher Christiane Bohr.

“It’s almost like they have a little bit of an apprenticeship,” Bohr said.

One girl, who studied beekeeping, made her own hive and kept a swam; another boy looked into sailing and convinced his parents to buy an old sailboat for him to refurbish; and Felix Hubert, 15, volunteered almost every weekend at the Orange County Birds of Prey Center and took two introductory classes in falconry for his project, Bohr said.

“It’s been really fun,” Felix said. “It’s really interesting just to see how the birds are.”

Morgan spent her year finding out all there is to know about ventriloquism and came out of her studies with a full routine for her soft mannequin monkey, she said.

“I’m going to stick to it,” she said.