Crocker Farm Elementary School Library Programming
From 2017 through the Present
A Collaboration between CF Library, Parents, and Students.
Crocker farm LIbrary Celebrating Diversity
During the school year the library celebrates the Indian culture. A Parent from our Amherst community presented her own culture to the students.
A Crocker Farm student brought her mom’s Wedding Sari to the library to share her culture with all of us.
Hallway Art Space presents Art and ARTIFACTS to CF Students and Staff
Theme: Hispanic Heritage Month 2017-2018
Hallway Art Space presents Art and ARTIFACTS to CF Students and Staff
Theme: Haiti 2017-2018
Hallway Art Space presents Art and ARTIFACTS to CF Students and Staff
Theme: Latin American Material Culture 2018-2019
Hallway Art Space presents Art and ARTIFACTS to CF Students and Staff
Theme: Mexican Pottery 2018-2019
A CF Student introduces her Australian Wind Instrument, a Didgeridoo, to us.
Celebrating the Mexican Day of the Dead in our library
Eva Fierst, Curator of Education at the University Museum of Contemporary Art, visits CF and talks about the current art exhibition, 5 Takes on African Art.
CF Field Trip to the UMASS Contemporary Art Museum to meet with the African Art Collector, Charles Derby, who talks about his personal anecdotes about his forty years of collecting and acquiring the objects on display in the exhibition.
Author & Illustrator Jeff Mack visiting Crocker Farm
Parents visiting the library during school Open House
Field Trip to the Boston Public Library
CF library is teaching a course about “Learning about Libraries and Librarianship.” As part of the lesson plan component, “Great Libraries of the World,” I would like to have students visit one of the historically important and impressive libraries in the United States, The Boston Public Library.
At the Boston Public Library Copley Square we had a scheduled Architecture Tour. Our guide was Ms. Betsy Gabrielson, who was an excellent tour guide for our group. We learned about the history, construction and renovations of the building and the art collection. We also had the opportunity to explore the library after the tour and had lunch at the courtyard. After lunch, the students spent time visiting the children’s library. We also, walked around the Copley Square and saw and experienced the Boston architecture.
Library Time
When the picture book story meets Art and Nature
Heshima Moja, Artist and Musician, Visiting CF Library
Library Block
Author & Illustrator Picture Book
Fifth grade students will adapt and illustrate a folk tale or a fairy tale in five narrative stages. (exposition, rising, climax, falling action, resolution) The illustrations will be based on Molly Bang’s Principles. Using construction paper for their medium; no use of facial expressions; and illustrating only five scenes, the students will be able to narrate their adapted story. Finally, they will present the completed picture book during library time. The students will talk about their picture book and their process and challenges they faced while creating the text, art and design.
Summer Achievement Academy
July 2019
Library Programming
The Black Book of Color
Author: Menina Cottin
Illustrator: Rosana Faria
Henri's Scissors
Author and Illustrator: Jeanette Winter
Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O'keeffe Painted What She Pleased
Author: Amy Novesky
Illustrator: Yuyi Morales
Hallway Art Space presents Art and ARTIFACTS to
CF Students and Staff
Theme: Native American Arts and Culture Exhibition 2019-2020
Native American History Month
Crocker Farm Assembly
November 15, 2019
Edward Bullock Eyes That Shine
Edward is a native of Wampanoag descent and son of Whirling Thunder. Ed taught us about his Wampanoag heritage and traditions through storytelling, dance, and arts. The students had the opportunity to engage in age appropriate conversations about identity, oral traditions, and Wampanoag dance and music.
Book Donation
Tittle: Natal
Author and Illustrator : Third Grade Student
Published: November 15, 2019
Author Visit
The Littlest Matryoshka
By Corinne Demas
Nov. 21, 2019
This January 2020 CF library is Collaborating with Our Traditional MLK Birthday Celebration
We are reading three picture books
Learning about Gee’s Bend Quilts, African American traditions & history are all fundamental for understanding the meaning and significance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
A fourth Grade Student at our school lent us her quilt; Hand made for her by her grandmother.
A first Grade Student at our school lent us his quilt; hand made by his aunt using his baby clothes and his baby sheets.
IMG_0637.MOV"Reading his own Quilt Story"
Students are wearing a traditional Peruvian Poncho!
"Book Hour"
2020
Special Programming for Crocker Farm Elementary School Parents
Parents as active CF Library Patrons
The CF Library in collaboration with the PGO is sponsoring a new program for parent.
This event will be conducted four times per year
Library Book Hour! First Presentation 2020.pptxPoetry Book Donation
Author and Illustrator: First Grade Student
Published: March 3, 2020
Library Project:
Story Telling through Paper Quilt Collages
January, 2020
This year the library will create story telling through paper quilts. The same way books or Totem Poles will narrate stories, the paper quilt collages will narrate an extraordinary story. Using African American tradition of the Gee’s Bend Quilt makers as an example, the students will be able to create his/her own personal quilt collage to narrate his/her own story.
Crocker C.A.R.E. Home Reading Bags Program
2020
Families Update
The library at the Crocker Farm Elementary School invites you to join us for, and inform our community of, the implementation of the Crocker C.A.R.E. Home Reading Book Bag program.
Through this program each of our students will receive a bag with books that they can enjoy and keep. The book distribution will take place on Thursday, December 17, 2020 beginning at 11:00AM to 3:30PM. Families will drive up to the school grounds and a bag of books will be taken to their cars by library staff and volunteers. Families that are unable to come to the school premises will have their bag(s) delivered to their homes.
Crocker C.A.R.E. Home Reading Bags Program
The Crocker Farm Elementary School Library, in collaboration with the PGO, will implement, in the coming days, the Crocker C.A.R.E. Home Reading Bags program. Through this program our students will receive a bag with books they can enjoy and keep. The purpose of the program, considering that our school has over 400 students and the health crisis we are currently experiencing, is to:
reduce the exposure to virus infections, to families and school staff, implicit in the withdrawal, delivery and return of library books;
drastically reduce book quarantining time for families that receive books and school staff that accept and coordinate book returns;
reduce the unnecessary retrieval and re-shelving of thousands of books, implicit in the withdrawal and return of library books; freeing staff to implement other practices that are beneficial to our students and their families.
This program is inspired by a current practice called Whole Person Librarianship, in which libraries import concepts from the world of social work, to address, among other concerns:
1. student access to books that are academically enriching as well as socially relevant and empowering;
2. popular community concerns (such as pandemics and safety precautions) as well as the traditional goals of educational institutions;
3. cultural humility within school libraries, that takes into consideration cultural sensitivities of the families to which students belong.
Cultural humility can be thought of as a practice of reflection and self-criticism that:
· acknowledges the relation of unequal power that exists between providers of services and their clientele;
· strives to learn about and respect the cultural traditions, values and beliefs of others.
This type of micro activism enables our school’s library to function as an intersectional library, by offering holistic patron services to our students and their families.
Library: Summer 2020 Short-Film Festival
Summary
During the summer of 2020, I would like to conduct a Short-Film Festival for students. The following descriptive text draws, primarily, on the mission statement and working plan of the Crocker Farm Library, established during the school year 2017.
Project Goals
Engaging students in age-appropriate conversations about the world in which they live, utilizing visual culture as an entry point to topics of Equity, Social Justice, Anti-bias, and empathy;
Enhance students’ understanding that all communities and populations of the world contribute to world culture.
Method
The films will have an average running time of ten minutes each, and a maximum running time of fifteen minutes. Each screening will be preceded by film detail, and preceded by a brief Q&A session. The screenings will place a sensitive age-appropriate focus on:
historical characters that have been relatively unacknowledged in traditional educational curricula, despite having;
-made important contributions to world culture and knowledge;
-succeeded while confronting great societal challenges.
traditional narratives that overtly glorify segments of society while implicitly undermining or vilifying others;
the depiction of human situations that promote perspective-taking among student viewers.
Current Need
The current health crisis is keeping students at home this summer, and they are unable to visit school libraries. Also, the country is experiencing a need to revisit historical narratives that
might be instilling misunderstandings and disharmony among Americans. One way to address both situations is to establish a Short-Film Festival that students can enjoy from home and that allows them to join the national conversation.
Benefit
Our library can function as a multi-purpose resource center for students, staff and parents, serving as a complementary laboratory of the classroom. Specifically, a Short-Film Festival would:
address cinematography as a tool for addressing a particular learning style, in addition to reading/writing, lecture and discussion;
help develop the visual literacy of our students, by familiarizing them with the importance of concepts and terminology such as genre, animation, musical, synopsis, drama, plot, setting, and director;
the lessons drawn from such a project can be shared with parents, siblings and friends.
Time Line
Summer
Summer Achievement Academy
2021
Library lesson: Reading: Auntie Luce’s Talking paintings by Francie Latour Illustrated by Ken Daley
Art project: Inspire students to create their own self-portrait.
“I paint to remember what I’ve seen and heard and smell and felt.”
African American Culture & History
Civil Rights Movement
2022
African American Culture & History: Civil Rights Movement
Library Lesson Plan: Martin Luther King Jr. CF celebration
2022
During Library time the students will discuss and build upon what they know about the Civil Rights Movement and biographies.
Using PowerPoint, the students will be able to see images about the Eric Carle Picture Book Museum exhibition The Picture Dream: The story of the Civil Rights Movement through Children’s Book, 2021.
The students will be engaged in an age appropriate conversation about the illustrations that they will be able to see in different picture books that we have here in the library.
Using materials from the Eric Carle Museum exhibition interactive component Signs of Change, the students will create signs to communicate what they really care about.
The students’ work will be collected to create a social justice binder containing Signs of Change reflecting upon and sharing the voices of our Crocker Farm students.
Black History Month 2022
During Black History Month, Crocker Farm students celebrated, honored and learned about the history and culture of African Americans.
Through the world of picture books, our students learned about the Gee’s Bend Quilts Art and History.
Gee’s Bend is a rural place in Alabama that has an amazing history of women quilters. Gee’s Bend women create quilts from the scrapped pieces of fabric that they recycle from their own old and used clothes. This was a utilitarian chore to keep their families warm. Today’s day, their quilts embody a tradition transmitted from generation to generation, memory, community, history and art. This art is being recognized in museums all over the world.
Crocker Farm Elementary Teacher Librarian: Waleska Santiago-Centeno
Crocker Farm Elementary Paraeducator: Andrea Tulenko-Catlin
Mentorship -Amherst Regional Middle School Teacher Librarian: Kenny Ramos
Class: 1st Grade Donoghue
Date: February 2022
UNBOUND: The Life and Art of Judith Scott
2022
Arts Block-Library 2021-2022
If you Find one of these Friendly rocks
Please email us with your feedback and/or a picture where you found it.
You can keep it or place it for someone else can find it.
Thank you, Teacher LIbrarian Waleska Santiago-Centeno
Our Fisrt Response
Little LIbrary box project 2022-Present
Collaboration with the cafeteria, Thank You!
Arts Block-Library 2022-2023
ARTS Block: LIBRARY PROJECT with Ms. Santiago (2023)
Inspired by the artist David Bird (BECORNS), the students used acorns, sticks and other natural materials to communicate a strong social justice message. The students were engaged in an age appropriate conversation about the importance and the role of signs. Finally, they will present the completed project for Earth Day Celebration. Fifth graders who participated were Devlin, Farida, Josue, Efrain and Brendan.
Summer Achieve Academy-Celebrating Birthdays!
2023
Arts Block-Library 2023-2024
"Special Thanks to all of the parents who collaborated with this project to make this cultural culinary exchange a success."
Ms. Santiago-Centeno
Guideline Questions
What is your favorite food?
Why is this your favorite food?
Who makes you favorite food? (mom, dad, gramma…
How often do you eat your favorite food?
Where does it come from? from El Salvador, PR, Japan…
Can you tell a story or a funny anecdote?
Explain ingredients
How is it made?
Do you help making it?
Day of the Dead Community Ofrenda
Day of the Dead Community Ofrenda
Collaboration
Crocker Farm Elementary School
November 2023
During the time that the library hosts the Community Ofrenda many staff and students participated. It was a volunteer participation. Everyone shows respect, reverence, and thoughtfulness as they placed their notes in the Community Ofrenda.
Our young students demonstrated how they remember and celebrate the lives of those who will always remain in their hearts, despite having departed from our world. This encouraging manifestation of humanity and sensitivity are projected in the Day of the Dead quilt.
Special Thanks to our Assistant Principal, Alicia Lopez, for giving us the opportunity to experience a thoughtful and wonderful Community Ofrenda for the Day of the Dead school programming.
Thank you, Crocker Farm Elementary School Teachers, Students, and Staff.
Day of the Dead Communty Ofrenda
Crocker Farm ElementarySchool
November 2024
Special Thanks to our Assistant Principal, Alicia Lopez, for giving us the opportunity to experience a thoughtful and wonderful Community Ofrenda for the Day of the Dead school programming.
Thank you, Crocker Farm Elementary School Teachers, Students, and Staff.
ERIC CARLE BOOK DONATION 2023
On Behalf of Crocker Farm Elementary School library, we would like to thank the Eric and Barbara Carle foundation for donating to us the classic picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle in different languages.
Rolf Carl and Teresa Toro Visiting Our Library!
LatinX Library celebration 2023
A Land of book: Dreams of Young Mexihcah Word Painters by Duncan Tonatiuh
The students explored and learned about
The history of the Mexican Codex: Why some of the surviving codex are in Italy and France and not in the hands of the Mexican.
The Amate Paper: how it has been used in the past, but also in the present.
Latinx Celebration 2023
Reading about Dominican Culture
Latinx Celebration 2023
Reading about Dominican Culture
Collabotation with Mrs. Modesta, Thank you!
IMG_0353.MOV
IMG_0480.MOVCelebrating Native American History Month 2023
The students read the biography of Pueblo Artist Maria Martinez. They explored black over black Pueblo pottery.
Crocker Farm Open House 2023
Thank you for visiting our CF school library!
Celebrating Three King's Day, 2024
The Memory Project: Books, Women, and The Environment 2024
The project is inspired by an exhibition at The Museum at Eldridge Street, called 28 Remarkable Women. The museum is housed in a synagogue built in 1887 in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
The Museum at Eldridge Street is proud to present an exhibition featuring 29 women who lived or worked on the Lower East Side of New York at the turn of the twentieth century. Their mixed media portraits by artist Adrienne Ottenberg incorporate maps of the Lower East Side neighborhood and are printed on silk or cotton banners that will be hung throughout the Museum’s gallery and historic sanctuary. Stories about the women highlight the work, life, and impact they made culturally, on social justice movements, and more.
The Memory Project: Books, Women, and The Environment
March and April of 2024, the Cocker Farm Library and 5th graders developed The Memory Project: Books, Women, and The Environment. The project revolves around Women’s History Month, during March; Earth Day, on April 22nd; and World Book Day, on April 23rd.
Students developed hanging banners, made of repurposed paper shopping bags, reminding the Crocker Farm community of memorable women featured in picture books they have read in the library from 2017 to the present. Each hanging banner includes an image from a picture book and student-created text. We will have approximately 44 banners on display.
Visiting students from Crocker Farm will take part in an interactive component whereby they can comment about their recollection of their experience with the picture books featured in the banners.
The Memory Project: Books, Women, and The Environment
You are invited to the Reception
Date: April 26, 2024
Time:3:30-6:00pm
Where: Crocker Farm Elementary School Library
Gazette Newspaper Article
April 17, 2024
Opening Reception for parents, staff and Community!
April 26, 2024
The Interactive Component
Using Repurposed Paper Shopping Bags students, teachers, and staff will have the opportunity to give us feedback and suggestions.
For example
•What do you remember about the story?
•Choose your favorite story and tell us why?
•Choose a banner… what do you think about the art or the material?
• Would you like to know more about ____.
a) exhibition b) the story c) the participants
The amazing artist Adrienne Ottenberg came to visit our version of her remarkable exhibition at The Museum at Eldridge Street, called 28 Remarkable Women.
The Crocker Farm Library is celebrating the Asian American & Pacific Islanders History month
with a performance of Lion/Dragon Dancing by Hong Tinh Duong Kung Fu and Lion Dance Team.
(May 2024)
“We must learn about other cultures in order to understand, in order to love, and in order to preserve our common world heritage.” –Yo Yo Ma, White House Conference on Culture and Diplomacy
The Crocker Farm Library is celebrating the Asian American & Pacific Islanders History month with a performance of Lion/Dragon Dancing by Hong Tinh Duong Kung Fu and Lion Dance Team. (May 2024)
The Crocker Farm Community enjoyed a first-hand experience of the power of the Asian Intangible Cultural Heritage of the World. Students, staff, and everyone were ecstatic with the performance. A great contribution to world citizenship and understanding. All participants will remember this educational moment.
Thank you so much for making this amazing opportunity possible to:
Yasmin Padamsee Forbes
Executive Director
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Asian American & Pacific Islanders Commission
Richard T. Chu
Five College Professor of History
Hong Tinh Duong
Kung Fu and Lion Dance Team
Crocker Farm Celebrating
Korean Culture
May 2024
Crcoker Farm Celebrating Japanese Culture (May 2024)
UMASS Graduate Students visit our Library
Professor Laura ValdiviezoCourse description : Foundations of Bilingual/ESL/Multicultural EducationThe course Foundations of Bilingual ESL and Multicultural Education explores the historical-political, philosophical, and pedagogical foundations of multicultural education through engaging various approaches to teaching culturally and linguistically diverse student population. (September 18, 2024 4;00-6:00pm)
August, 2024
Practicing Kindness
CF Students is reading the picture book You are my Friend: the story of Mr. Rogers. Through this biography, we were inspire to practice kindness.
Using their own interpretation and imagination each one of my students has the chance to write, draw or both (using color pencils and index card) what is kind or how to practice kindness. At the end we are creating a wall of kind/Kindness. To be kind is...
"Kind to each other," "kind to animals," "kind to our planet earth," "kind to elders," "kind to our families," "kind and care to other," kind to our friends"
and one of the most important one is to be kind with ourselves."
The Magic Library Programming
2024-2025
The Magic Library (TML) will be a year-long, ongoing project that will be comprised of special programs. Some of these programs have already begun to be implemented. Others have already been conceptualized. Yet others will be designed in the future.This project will emphasize the importance CF and its library place on the development and empowerment of all students, social justice, and diverse learning styles.I Examples of programs already (begun) to be implementedThe Memory Project – was implemented during March, April and May of 2024. Inspired by an exhibition at the Museum at Eldridge Street, on New York City’s Lower East Side, it brought together student awareness and concerns about international Women’s Day, world Book Day and International Earth Day.Guest Speakers/performance Series – Our library has already hosted Adrienne Ottenberg the artist who designed and installed an exhibit at the Museum at Eldridge Street. In a collaboration with the Eric Carle Museum our CF Library will be hosting internationally-recognized authors/illustrators of picture books like Roger Mello from Brazil. Roger Mello visit: (K-6) Cafeteria/Auditorium – Friday, October 11, 2024Authors and Illustrator Roger Mello visits our school
Friday, October 11, 2024
Thank you to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art for its support
Brazilian Authors and Illustrators:
Mariana Massarani and Roger Mello
Brazilian Authors and Illustrators:
Felipe Cavalcante, Roger Mello and Mariana Massarani
