Starting, Monday, November 16, both Chevy Chase Library and Potomac Library will be open Monday through Thursday from 10 am to 8 pm. On Fridays and Saturdays, they will be open 10 am - 6 pm.  Read more about expanded hours all Montgomery County Public Libraries at the MCPL website.

Chronicling America:  Historic American Newspapers, 1836-1922 @ 10 Million Pages

The Library of Congress announces that the Chronicling America web site now offers more than 10 million pages from more than 1,900 newspapers in 38 states and territories, and the District of Columbia. The site provides free and open access to historic American newspapers published between 1836 and 1922. The newspapers are accessible to students, researchers, journalists and others for all kinds of research, from family history to in-depth analysis of U.S. culture. The headlines, articles and advertisements capture the life and times of the American people, shining new light on historic events as they unfolded. 

Read the latest issues online!

October 2015

Fall 2015

Make Magazine Newsletter - Oct. 20

We are continuing our experiments with online magazines.  Flipster costs less and seems even easier to use than the vendor we tried last year.  They also have a better match with the magazines we subscribed to in print.  It seems  just wonderful to be able to offer great titles that everyone can read from anywhere at any time.  Want to give it a try? click the Flipster link above, Scan the QR code or click the Flipster graphic on the library website (www.ssfs.org/academics/libraries) and get full access to:
Art News, Backpacker, Cicada, Cobblestone, Cricket, Dig, Faces, Horse and Rider, Muse, Newsweek, Popular Science, Rolling Stone, Vegetarian Times, The Week, and Yoga Journal 
to read on all your devices.  To read offline, download the EBSCO Flipster app.  On campus you go directly to the magazines.  Off campus, you will be asked for a username and password;  use our generic one -  ssfs and friends  Give it a try and let you librarians know what you think.

The 15th Library of Congress National Book Festival will take place Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015, and feature more than 170 authors, poets, illustrators and special presenters. To mark this anniversary, as well as the the 200th anniversary of the Library's acquisition of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library, the festival has as its theme Jefferson's quote, "I Cannot Live Without Books."  For more information on this free event, including a detailed schedule and a listing of authors, click here  or visit the festival's Facebook page.

To download the National Book Festival App, visit the Library of Congress Apps page at loc.gov/apps/.

Summer 2015 Community Read

This summer

SSFS parents and friends are invited to join

LS, MS, and US students, faculty and staff in reading

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

We hope it will inspire great conversations at home and throughout the coming school year

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William Kamkwamba’s story is one of persistence: one young person’s determination to educate himself, to better understand the world around him, and to improve that world for himself, his family, and his community.

Living through the drought and famine as a fourteen-year-old in 2005 Malawi, and forced to drop out of school for lack of funds, William decided to continue his education on his own.  Inspired by a textbook picture found in a small NGO library, he taught himself to harness magetsi a mphepo – “electric wind.”  He utilized discarded materials from a local scrap yard and built a windmill to power lights and another to pump water.

Published in three editions – picture book, middle reader, and the original adult memoir – the story of this creative and determined self-learner is accessible to every member of our community, and can open up conversations across age, experience, and cultural diversity.

Want to know more?  Check out these links:

Why a Community Read?

How I built a windmill: William Kamkwamba's 2007 Ted Talk

How I Harnessed the Wind: William Kamkwamba's  2009 Ted Talk

William Kamkwamba’s Blog

Moving Windmills Foundation

 

A few community members have brought forward members of their personal networks as potential speakers or leaders for book-centered activities next year.  We’d welcome your ideas too – feel free to email johanna.cowie@ssfs.org throughout the summer.

The votes are in!  The Black-Eyed Susan Award winners are:

Picture Book

The Day the Crayons Quit
by Drew Daywalt








Grades 4 - 6

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
by Chris Grabenstein







Grades 4 - 6 Graphic Novel

Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity
by Dave Roman








Grades 6 - 9

On the Day I Died: Stories from the Grave
by Candace Fleming










High School

Eleanor & Park
by Rainbow Rowell

It's AP Exam time in Yarnall Library

The Yarnall Library will be closed on the following dates for Upper School AP Exams:

Monday, May 4  8:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Chemistry)

Tuesday, May 5  8:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Calculus AB and BC)

Wednesday, May 6  8:00 AM - 12:30 PM (English Lit.)

Thursday, May 7  8:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Spanish Lang.)

Friday, May 8  8:00 AM - 12:00 PM (U.S. History)

NEW  Friday, May 8  12:00 PM - 4:00 PM (European History)

Wednesday, May 13  8:00 AM - 12:00 PM (English Lang.)

Wednesday, May 13  12:00 PM - 4:00 PM (Statistics)

Thursday, May 14  8:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Comparative Govt. & World History)


The Tanglewood Library Center in the LS will be open for business as usual.

Our Black-eyed Susan votes are cast and we know our local winner -

Lion vs. Rabbit

Closely followed by 

 The Day the Crayons quit

 

In a few weeks we will find out the state winner.  Something cool about Sandy Spring  Friends School is, we have independent thinkers who know what they like, and most years including this year, every one of the fifteen nominees gets a vote from someone.  To read more about this annual award contest go the the Maryland Association of School Libraries sit.

It's Black-eyed Susan Season!

Once again it is time for SSFS to participate in the Maryland Association of School Libraries (MASL) children's choice award named for our state flower.  Run since 1992, the contest has as its purpose to "promote literacy and lifelong reading habits."  A committee meets throughout the year to narrow the field of recently published books to a slate of nominees and children all over Maryland vote for their favorite titles.  We share all 15 nominated picture book titles with the entire Lower School.  Something that I always enjoy about this process is observing how independently our students think about the offerings.  Every year every book has its champions and rarely does one book sweep the field, even from class to class.  Your family might enjoy reading some of the nominees in other categories - a student only needs to read three from any list to be able to vote in the contest.  Spring break provides some extra time for choosing something you want to read and a book is a great companion for travels or for staying at home.  Here are some links with descriptions of the books and information about the authors - 

2014-2015 Maryland Black Eyed Susan Award 4-6

http://new.mackinbooktalk.com/category/2014-2015-maryland-black-eyed-susan-award-4-6

2014-2015 Maryland Black Eyed Susan Award 6-9

http://new.mackinbooktalk.com/category/2014-2015-maryland-black-eyed-susan-award-6-9

2014-2015 Maryland Black Eyed Susan Award Graphic Novel Award

http://new.mackinbooktalk.com/category/2014-2015-maryland-black-eyed-susan-graphic-novel-award

Happy reading!

From the Howard County Public Library's Facebook page:

FIVE GARDENS AND GROWING

We are in the home stretch of the 2015 reading program - Friday we'll collect the week 4  numbers and see if we have made our goal.  It will be a stretch, but we are still accepting bonus submissions of recipes and poems, and they can make a difference - Send them to us!  They will also make a wonderful eBook of poetical deliciousness.  This morning I got this splendid poem in my email - reason enough to keep running reading programs for years to come!  All this and feeding people, too, in mind, body and soul.

The small piece of life

In the warmth of dark silt

Waiting for beams of sunlight

To wake the resting

A popping sprout

The plant of hope

That says "I am here"

The soothing rain

Bursting with energy and nutrients

The falling water wet on the rich soil

A strong stem that says "I will stay"

Reaches its roots out

Trusts the earth

And grows taller

   - Rebecca M. 5A

Accidental STEAM from the Library Reading Program

“Read Seed and Feed” is under way with over 60,285 minutes read and reported in the first week of reading!   Books and periodicals are being read, banners are flying in the LS and MS parking lots, gardens of seeds are being “planted” in the Tanglewood library and MS collection space, librarians are blogging, and microgreens are sprouting in classrooms.  We even have a hash tag - #SSFSReads! (Thanks, Michelle!)

Each year your librarians strive to create a reading program that encourages students to read and illustrates how reading, in a quiet but ever-present way, empowers individuals to shape their own lives and influence the world around them.  In doing so we try to incorporate thinking and activity across academic departments.

Interdisciplinary and real world opportunities have been part of the SSFS approach to learning since its founding in 1961 - think maple syrup in 2nd grade and Assateague in 8^th.  Approaching projects through multiple disciplines is a much talked about in education these days, particularly when it comes to science.  You may have heard the acronyms STEM or STEAM.  Turns out the library reading program is moving full STEAM ahead.

S is for Science:  plant biology, seeds, gardening, nutrition, food cycle

T is for Technology:  blogging, posting, and tweeting

E is for Engineering:  the MS Gardening committee-made sub–irrigating planters from discarded soda bottles

A is for Art:  displays, Black History Month bulletin board, one class is making an artistic surprise for the rest of us

M is for Math:  calculations, conversions, estimates and predictions

When I asked a group of MS students, “Why read?” I got a diverse set of answers:  to learn, to understand others, to relax, to escape, to figure out stuff, to figure out about myself. 

Reading opens the way.

Pick of the New Book Crop:

Crocodile loves, loves, loves watermelon.  Check this book out to find out what happens when he swallows a seed!

This book won the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for being the most distinguished American book published for beginning readers in 2014.

6:20 Monday, February 9th
This just in! With about half of classes reporting (some are still adding up the totals) we have 33,779 minutes/seeds. That's almost enough to plant a garden...Have you earned your bonus hour by sending the Read, Seed, Feed postcard through Wee Mail?  Those kindergarten kids love to have some mail to deliver...and a Lower School teacher told me today that it just warmed her heart to hear from kids she taught in the previous year. They remembered their enjoyment of the books she shared. Look for a graphic representation of our progress in the MS collection area (a big sheet hanging from the railing sometime tomorrow morning) and in the Tanglewood library.

     I am writing from home, recovering from the flu.  The good news is, being sick gave me extra time for reading. I read Son by Lowis Lowry and I am about to finish Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan, which I have been reading little by little for a really long time.  In the very enjoyable chapter on bread making I came to this quote from Joe Vanderliet, the owner of Certified Foods and a miller for Community Grains that seemed to speak directly to this year's program - "What you have to understand..is that nature made a perfect package when it made the seed, all the parts working together in a living system." Your reading will earn you lots of "perfect packages" to grow and feed many people.  
      We've already received some great submissions for the Week 1 bonus, and we are looking forward to many more.  Here's a padlet wall where you can see the first few and the lovely Google  Doodle from yesterday.   Don't forget to cite your sources!  And have fun reading.   --elizabeth

SSFS Library Reading Program - READ, SEED, FEED

We launch on January 30th this year, and will be keeping track of  all Middle School and Lower School reading every day for 28 days. Directions and seeds will be coming home with students on Friday the 30th.   PK-2nd graders will bring home slips for recording their reading time, and 3rd-8th graders will record their minutes on a poster in their homeroom (LS) or their English classrooms (MS).  Every week there will be a way to earn a bonus hour that builds on the theme.  Every minute read will equal a seed that will go to grow a community garden.  Some of  the seeds will go to our own community farm, some will go to AFSC gardens in Logan, West Virginia that our US students and faculty helped  create and support on Intersession each year, and some will go to gardens identified by Seed Savers Exchange.  We  hope to reach 320,000 minutes/seeds and plant 8 gardens.  You can see our progress in the MS Collection space and the Tanglewood Library - and we'll post pictures here, too. 

Currently, we're looking for 2 liter soda bottles to make planters for every classroom to have a mini garden of micro-greens.  If you have any bottles bring them to either library.