Crocker Farm Elementary School Library Programming

From 2017 through 2024

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.

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"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.pptx

Poetry 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

Learning about Different Abilities 2022

UNBOUND: The Life and Art of Judith ScotT

A moving and powerful introduction to the life and art of renowned artist, Judith Scott, as told by her twin sister, Joyce Scott and illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist, Melissa Sweet.

Judith Scott was born with Down syndrome. She was deaf, and never learned to speak. She was also a talented artist. Judith was institutionalized until her sister Joyce reunited with her and enrolled her in an art class. Judith went on to become an artist of renown with her work displayed in museums and galleries around the world.

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

santiago-centenow@arps.org

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

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!

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Celebrating 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: