Squirrel Appreciation Day

For the past two years our library has celebrated Squirrel Appreciation Day. Yes, there is such a national celebration every year on January 21. We have highlighted the occasion by handing out informative squirrel bookmarks, which are always a hit.

This year we decided to kick things up a notch. That’s right – a READ TO A SQUIRREL event with the goal of promoting reading.

In addition to the bookmarks, this year we added squirrel stickers which were a hit.

To enhance efforts to increase reading for pleasure, this day long Read to a Squirrel Event was offered to students on a Friday.

Students who sat in our back area (Fiction Section) with a book to read were offered hot cocoa and a plush squirrel they could read to or just cuddle while reading.

Morning announcements and signs created a buzz in advance of the activity. Students were quite excited. More surprisingly was that staff members were equally excited.

Teachers reading to squirrels!

We had a surprise visit with Fredo and Enzo, Chilean ground squirrels. Thanks to a science teacher, Fredo and Enzo got to spend the day in the library.

Overall the day was successful – students read, staff read, all associated reading as a fun experience. Based on the feedback received we’re wondering who we should read to next!

Happy reading!

Ugly Sweater Contest

Our library makerspace is consistently used during the holiday season. Lots of card making and crafting personalized gifts keep our students busy. This year we added a fun challenge. Create an ugly sweater. Many students took us up on this challenge and goodness the results were quite… well, ugly.

We left a template of a sweater in the makerspace area and the students could use any materials they could find to create their own masterpiece. The activity quickly gained attention as students displayed their work in the library.

Template

The judging was done by student popular vote and there were secondary ribbons for various categories judged by the library staff. All in all, we had lots of fun and we got to experience a fun, festive, and creative side to our students.

Here’s a look at some unique sweaters: