Recognition & News

The library is the heart of a school. It is where we help children fall in love with stories and with knowledge. It is where students can find some quiet space at recess. And it is where families can gather and reconnect after school. And if we are truly lucky, it is also a place where books come to life.

This is our philosophy at the Holy Family Library and the inspiration behind our November Library Planetarium. Of course, this is something we try to do every day. Every week we have read aloud with all of our classes where stories are brought out of the pages and allow our curious students to explore their meaning. And every month, we hide a nook on our shelves with a scene from some of our most beloved books for all our families to find. But in time for Book Fair and the holidays, we wanted to do something different, something special, and something where we could take the pages of a book and place our students inside them.

From the shelves of our Non-Fiction, came a book, an idea, Welcome to the Museum: The Planetarium, which begins:

“This Museum is open all hours. A walk through its galleries is a stroll through our vast universe, from the sun in our solar system to the galaxies that lie beyond the Milky Way. … Enter here to explore the spectacular universe that stretches far beyond our own night skies.”

So, what happens if we bring this museum from the pages to our classroom? We set about preparing the library classroom to house four projectors to immerse our students in the wonders of the universe. The first of these projectors plays a video of pictures taken straight from the book, while the other three projectors use videos of planets in our solar system and the night sky to bring the pictures to life.

For one whole week, students will step behind the curtain of the library classroom to enter the deep reaches of space. They will travel to each of the eight planets of our solar system, where they will be regaled with stories of Venus’ great volcano, Jupiter’s raging storm, Saturn floating in a bathtub and the diamond rain that falls on Neptune. Once we leave our solar system, we look up at the constellations in the sky to find Orion the Hunter to the North and the Southern Cross to the South and finish our time at the planetarium by marveling at the Northern and Southern Lights.

But at Holy Family we believe that the library is not just for our classes but for our whole community to enjoy! So, on our final afternoon on Wednesday, families are invited to come after school to enjoy this event with us!

It is difficult to explain the importance of those first gasps as the children enter into a star-lit room, or the excitement as they begin rushing through the galaxy on our journey through the book. This excitement and these gasps of delight are children learning to love books. The enthusiasm is children learning to love knowledge!      

The Scholastic Book Fair arrives on campus the week of November 13-17. Check out (get it!) the latest collections and create your e-wallet here!

https://www.scholastic.com/bf/holyfamilycatholicschool5