Check It Out!

Please check out our virtual book fair from November 11th - November 25th. In this new format you can search over 10,000 titles to find just the right one for children or adults of all ages and interests. Books make great gifts – some books become treasured items that children will return to over and over. The books will ship directly to your address in about a week (plenty of time if you will be doing holiday gift giving).

This format also gives a greater percentage of the profits to our school than traditional book fairs and we share the rest of the profits with a local business. Anyone can shop at our book fair (you don’t have to be affiliated with Colrain). There are suggestions for each grade and teachers have made wishlists. Take a look and please reach out to me (tamiller@mtrsd.org) or the book fair coordinator with any questions (kinsey@highfivebooks.org). Families will receive hard copies of the information for the book fair or visit this link to get started: bookshop.org/shop/highfivebookfairs

In our library community we feel the seasons shift, not only through changing topical book displays and read-alouds, but also through the evolving views outside our windows. In addition to enjoying seasonal stories, younger grades continue to learn about the parts of a book, and the important roles of the author and illustrator. First graders even took on the roles themselves. Each class collaboratively wrote a very silly story, then each student illustrated a page in the book to be published and shared here in the library. The feeling of ownership for their creation is palpable!

We kicked off the month of November with books about elections and voting, and for the second time in my tenure as librarian, we held our own Very Important Stuffy election. The question at hand: which plush book character should join the library next? Students in grades K-6 cast ballots for their choice of either the caterpillar from The Very Hungry Caterpillar or the mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It was a very close race, but a winner was announced. Drumroll, please…the mouse had the most votes! We strive to connect read-alouds to current events, so several classes this week enjoyed hearing true stories about animals who served in the military, leading up to our Veterans Day assembly. November is also when we’ll highlight indigenous stories and voices as part of Native American Heritage Month. Take a look below at some of the books we’re enjoying!

Though it’s still warm outside, the Sanderson Library is beginning to take on a cozier feel. The twinkle lights add a certain warmth, the soft chairs invite readers to sit and stay awhile, and the displays have just been updated with new themes including food, gratitude, outdoor skills and unplugged indoor activities. This month the library is also featuring books that recognize National Native American Heritage Month, which will be our focus in the library this November. Read-alouds will feature books by Native American authors and illustrators. These books will guide our learning as we expand our understanding of various North American tribes and what it means to be indigenous. The books that we have read so far are pictured below.

In the upper grades, students are practicing research and library navigational skills to explore this topic. Sixth and fourth graders helped to create a library display including various Native American authors and illustrators. They researched to find out the author or illustrator’s tribe, and explored an online global map called Native Land Digital to discover the location of their author or illustrators' ancestral homelands. Native Land Digital is “a living document, informed by the contributions of Indigenous communities, Indigenous knowledge holders and their stories. It does not claim to represent official or legal boundaries.” Students were very interested in this map and curious to find out whose ancestral homelands they currently live on. Fifth graders are working in groups to research a Native American author or illustrator more in depth. These authors include Julie Flett (Cree-Métis), Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa), Traci Sorell (Cherokee), and Cythia Leitich Smith (Muscogee-Creek). Fifth graders are applying what they learn to create posters using Google Drawings about their author or illustrator, which will be hung in the library.