Community Service

There is no frigate like a book… to take us to Boston

December 30, 2015Kids and Community Service, Uncategorizedchildren and community service, Community Service, donating children's books, kids service projects, Reach Out and Read, Wonderland BookSavers, ZappRxmadelinelangdon Leave a comment

By Madeline

On December 8, Team WBS traveled to the Floating Hospital for Children in Boston at Tufts Medical Center. We drove from Fairfield, Connecticut to Boston, Massachusetts, bringing with us 2,000 books boxed and categorized by level. Our car was brimming with our books, team members Reid, Brooks Morgan, Emma, Claire, Madeline, our mothers, and a handcart to transport our books.

Upon arriving at the hospital, we were greeted by medical staff, and members of the ZappRx team. We clambered out of the car and began loading boxes of books onto the cart. Together, we pushed and guided the cart into the hospital and into the elevator.

The steel doors of the elevator opened, and we pushed and carried our books out. Hospital employees welcomed us, and gave us a tour of the hospital. We were informed about the program Reach Out and Read, which the Floating Hospital for Children endorses. Reach Out and Read is a literacy program where whenever children come to the hospital, doctors check their literacy, and each child is allowed to choose a book and bring it home.

Meeting hospital staff

A poster for Reach Out and Read

Once familiar with the hospital and its program, we began to unload our books and stock the empty shelves. We organized books by age groups: infant to five years old, kindergarten to third grade, fourth to eighth grade, and high school.

An organized cabinet of middle and high school books that we donated

A little girl chooses a book

We filled all the shelves with our books, and left a surplus for the hospital to restock with.

Left to right: Claire, Madeline, Reid, Emma, and Brooks Morgan. Posing with some of the books we donated

After departing from the hospital, we headed towards Wellesley, ate lunch, and then proceeded to The Rare Books Collection at Wellesley College where we examined many antiquated, priceless, texts. Some of the texts we saw include a first edition of Martin Luther’s Bible, the first mobile-print Book of Amos, a first edition of Newton’s Principio, a first edition of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius, and a medieval manuscript containing religious songs and illustrations.

Sidereus Nuncius

We were able to touch, hold, and examine the books, and the librarians proffered a plethora of information about the content, history, and acquisition of each text.

Book of Amos

Looking at Sidereus Nuncius

Newton’s Principio

Our excursion to Wellesley marked the end of our trip. We headed home with our car devoid of the books it had carried to Boston, and our minds filled with the knowledge and experiences we had acquired throughout the day.

Time Butterflies When You’re Having Fun

July 11, 2015Uncategorizedchildren and community service, children's libraries, Community Service, donating children's books, homeschooling community service, kids service projects, summer reading, Wonderland BookSaversclairelangdon Leave a comment

By Claire

Today on this dreamy summer afternoon, after reading the book Wings of Light by Stephen R. Swinburne, Wonderland BookSavers teamed with junior members to create our very own butterflies.

After reading the book, our little siblings were captivated by the descriptive language and beautiful illustrations, all of which contributed to portraying the journey of the little yellow butterflies on their way from the rainforest up to Vermont. This inspired the WBS Junior members to make their own (rather messy) renditions of the art.

To make your own book-inspired butterflies, you will need:

Paper
Paint( we used blue, yellow and pink)
Containers or plates for the paint
Paint brushes
A surface that you don’t mind messing up( we used cardboard)
Glitter( optional)
And, most importantly, cute little hands that don’t mind getting messy!

First, paint your hand. Get creative! We made stripes, hearts, polka dots and swirls using the paint and brushes. Little Wills even stamped his hand on the plate of paint without making a specific pattern. His butterfly turned out to be very abstract!

Next, stamp your hand on one side of your paper. Be sure to press down hard and try not to move your hand too much, as this helps to keep the design clearer.

After stamping your first hand, you can either paint your other hand and stamp it as you did with your first hand, or you can fold the paper in half and press it down to make the same design on both wings. The Wonderland BookSavers experimented with both, and both methods turned out wonderfully.

Once you have completed both wings, use your fingers or the paint brush to make a head, body, and antennas for your little butterfly. To enhance the effect, sprinkle some glitter over your wet paint.

Voila! Your book-inspired butterflies are finished. Time Butterflies when you’re having fun!

Literally Lunchtime by Maddie

June 30, 2015Kids and Community Servicebook lovers, children and community service, children's book clubs, Community Service, homeschool happymess, kids and community service, summer reading, Wonderland BookSavershomeschoolhappymess Leave a comment

On Tuesday we held a meeting to commemorate the end of an Asian themed selection of books.

For each book or set of books that we read, we choose a project. Wonderland BookSavers is both a book club and a global charity; this project was for our team book club.

We read Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai, Leaving Vietnam, by Tuan Ngo, Water Buffalo Days, by Huynh Quang Nhuong and Chinese Cinderella, by Yen Mah. Each of these stories is an autobiographical account of a childhood marked by displacement due to war. These stories are set in different countries, and are from different perspectives. Water Buffalo Days is from a young boy’s point of view. Inside Out and Back Again poetically reflects a young girl’s perspective. Chinese Cinderella narrates a young girl’s life from birth through college, and Leaving Vietnam portrays displacement through a young boy’s eyes. Through these tales we learned of the difficulties children face when the world around them falls apart. They are forced to adapt to extreme challenges and must become adults in entirely foreign circumstances.

One refrain among the four books was the desire of each child to return to “home.” We decided that a fitting activity for this set of books was to investigate what would constitute “home” cooking for these four children. Using the Usborne Children’s World Cookbook, we researched simple and typical Asian food.Our meal included: Egg drop soup, cold sesame noodles, chicken satay, and fried rice.It took us about two hours to cook all the food, then we served our soup, rice, satay, and noodles all at once on a table. We did everything authentically, except eating with chopsticks. We cooked all of the food methodically, following the directions exactly. It was far different from just throwing everything in, and the result was that it was time consuming, but the taste was well worth the wait. It was a very delicious end to our Asian selection in literature.