‘Baby Raven Reads Visits Evergreen Elementary School in Wrangell’ by Assistant Principal Jenn Miller-Yancey

Evergreen Elementary School students gather to read ’10 Sitka Herring’

Recently at the Evergreen Elementary School library in Wrangell, Alaska, we had a special guest from the Baby Raven Reads program, Delilah Ramirez. Baby Raven Reads is a reading program through Sealaska Heritage that promotes early literacy, language development and school readiness for Alaska Native families with children up to age 5.

During the month of January our school focused on fairy tales, fables and tall tales. We partnered with Sealaska to connect Tlingit fables and legends with the genre that the students have been learning. Delilah read “10 Sitka Herring”  to our K-1st grades and “Raven and the Box of Daylight” to our 2nd grade class and our 2nd/3rd grade combined class. Afterwards, she connected a craft with the story and gave students an opportunity to try out two different handmade drums. 

It was a wonderful learning experience as children were able to connect to local Tlingit culture and literature. During the activity, a kindergartner picked up one of the drums and began drumming a song he learned from one of our community events. As he began to drum some of the other students began to dance the traditional dances that they had learned. Overall, this was an amazing week in the library! Our library is the heart and soul of all we do at Evergreen Elementary School. Our amazing librarian, Mrs. Gerald, works tirelessly to bring exciting and educational options to the library that get our students excited about learning.