Fourth Outdoors Noyes StoryWalk® Highlights Environmental Awareness

In celebration of Earth Day, families are invited to read the bilingual book Rainbow Weaver by Linda Elovitz Marshall, illustrated by Elisa Chavarri, on posted signs as they stroll through a park in Kensington. The Noyes Rainbow Weaver StoryWalk® will be available for self-guided exploration from Saturday, April 17, 2021, through Saturday, May 15, 2021, at Capitol View-Homewood Local Park (2929 Edgewood Road, Kensington, MD 20895).  
 
The StoryWalk® is presented with the cooperation of Montgomery Parks and the Oakland Terrace Elementary School PTA. The park is adjacent to Oakland Terrace, an MCPS Spanish-English immersion school. Rainbow Weaver, which is told in both Spanish and English on each spread in the book, focuses on a young girl who wants to weave like her mother and the women of her Guatemalan village but doesn’t have materials. She discovers that she can weave with plastic bags littering the village, and then sell her weaving to help pay for her school and school books.  
 
A QR code at the StoryWalk® to scan will take users to the Foundation’s website for crafts and printable coloring pages related to the book. While enjoying the StoryWalk® experience, visitors are asked to wear masks and observe social distance.  
 
Families are encouraged to share a photo of the walk on the Noyes Children’s Library Facebook page (facebook.com/MakeMoreNoyes), post to Facebook and tag the Noyes Children’s Library Foundation, or post to Instagram and tag @makemorenoyes. 
 
Families can also tune into free weekly storytimes on Tuesdays presented by the Foundation on Facebook Live (facebook.com/MakeMoreNoyes). A storytime on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, will include D.C. stage actor and Kensington mom Karen Vincent reading Rainbow Weaver. The storytime can be viewed live at 11am (EST). Storytimes with Vincent continue weekly on Tuesdays at 11am on Facebook Live. 
 
While the Noyes Library for Young Children remains closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Noyes Foundation has been providing literacy outreach to the Greater D.C. community. The first Noyes StoryWalk®, presented by the Noyes Children’s Library Foundation in January, featured pages from The Mitten by Jan Brett in store windows in Kensington; a February StoryWalk® focused on The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and was installed at Warner Circle Park in Kensington; and the StoryWalk® in March at Kensington’s Clum-Kennedy Park highlighted Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea by Meena Harris. 
 
More information on Noyes Foundation events can be found at noyeslibraryfoundation.org/events. 
 
The Noyes Children’s Library Foundation works to raise funds, enhance early literacy programs, and inspire community engagement so that all children can discover the wonder of books through Noyes Children’s Library. The Foundation is a grassroots nonprofit founded in 1991 to raise funds for the historic Noyes Children’s Library, a specialized branch of Montgomery County Public Libraries in Kensington, Maryland. The all-volunteer Foundation has grown to support the library’s mission in many ways, and now, in cooperation with Montgomery County, the Foundation is leading the Make MORE Noyes Renovation Campaign to make Noyes universally accessible, while expanding its space and early literacy mission. For more information, go to noyeslibraryfoundation.org. 
 
StoryWalk® is a registered trademark of Anne Ferguson.

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