Throughout the month of March, the Manchester Elementary Middle School (MEMS) placed an emphasis on community in its observance of National Reading Month. In celebrating literacy with its students on multiple fronts, the school staff, faculty and students reached outside the confines of the building to create a wider audience.
“We want to create a greater community of readers,” says MEMS Principal Harrison Shulman. “All of us - students, staff, families, neighbors and friends - benefit in the celebration of the written word. Our focus for one month, creates a return on investment that just keeps delivering in the future.”
The centerpiece of the MEMS celebration is the school-wide reading of a single book. “It’s the glue that puts everyone on the same page,” says BRSU English, Language, Arts Chair Jessica Kuzmich. “And from that foundation we expand our horizon.”
The book of choice this year is the award-winning children’s novel “Wishtree,” by Katherine Applegate. The book’s main character is an old red oak tree named Red, who along with her best friend Bongo the crow, helps their animal and human neighbors accept their differences. With a focus on compassion, friendship, and tolerance, the book offers important messages on inclusivity and community action.
The components of the MEMS celebration include, but are hardly limited to:
All-school Assembly to announce the book, with a special appearance by Bongo (Natalie Philpot of the Dorset Players).
WEQX interview - MEMS students from 3rd, 5th, and 6th grade spoke about their love of reading on Sunday Brunch with Joy.
MEMS Woodland - each classroom adopted a tree species and decorated doorways and hallways to create a forest landscape inside the school.
Literacy Dinner - over 500 guests - including parents, families and friends - came to the school for an evening of dancing, arts & crafts, scavenger hunts, and conversation over food donated by local restaurants.
Wishtree Soundtrack - students in grades 4-8, along with instrumental music teacher Hannah Yarwood, collaborated with WEQX DJ Jeff Morad to create a musical playlist for the book.
Make-A-Wish - $5,000 is expected to be raised by the greater MEMS family to grant a wish for a Vermont child. Jamie Heath, Vermont Make-A-Wish staff member and children’s author, attended an all-school meeting to thank the students and read from her book, “Wishes are Medicine.”
Manchester Community Library - Grade 3 teachers and students painted windows at the library with characters from “Wishtree.”
Downtown window display - Northshire Bookstore decorated a store window to showcase “Wishtree.”
MEMS Wishtree - a large tree outside the school has been designated as the MEMS Wishtree where students, staff, and members of the community are invited to hang their own hopes and dreams on the tree for all to see.
The month-long festivities could not have been complete without the support of local sponsors. In addition to WEQX, Vermont Make-A-Wish, Manchester Community Library, Northshire Bookstore and volunteer readers, there was the MEMS Parent Teacher Organization, Mystico Restaurant, Pearl’s Place, Equinox Restaurant, Charlie's Coffee House, Christos’ Pizza and Pasta, Wilcox Ice Cream, Earth Sky Time Community Farm, Mother Myrick’s, River Road Eatery, Roadrunner, and Depot Street Burgers.
In a final salute to National Reading Month, MEMS brought the school together for a final celebration of what they had accomplished. Some 20 students were recognized by their teachers for exhibiting signs of empathy - the central message in “Wishtree.”
At the end of the assembly, the students from all grades and a teacher played a game of musical hula hoops to demonstrate one lasting lesson from the book. Unlike musical chairs, where the winner is the last player seated, in musical hula hoops the players find ways for all to fit inside a single ring at the end of the game. Collaboration became real as students squeezed together, making room for everyone.
(Photo above: Young artist Benjamin Redleon is proud to look up on the screen to see his his design that proclaims "Reading is for Everyone.”)
Wishes from students and staff written on strips of fabric adorn the MEMS Wishtree outside the school - community members are invited to add their hopes and dreams.
MEMS students play a game of musical hula hoops to show that everyone fits in.
Over 500 guests - including parents, families and friends - came to the school for an evening of dancing, arts & crafts, scavenger hunts, and conversation over food donated by local restaurants.
MEMS raised money for the Vermont Make-A-Wish Foundation during National Reading Month.
Jamie Heath from the Vermont Make-A-Wish Foundation thanks the MEMS students for their help raising funds to grant a Vermont child a special wish.
Each MEMS classroom adopted a tree species and decorated doorways and hallways to create a forest landscape inside the school.