February RIF of NOVA News! STEAM It Up! is back!

February 2025

STEAM-ing It Up!

RIF NOVA's STEAM It Up! program continues in 2025, again thanks to a partnership with Amazon and Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Communities. The program was created to provide local students with age-appropriate STEAM books and activities. Four RIF NOVA elementary schools took part in late 2023. Ten schools are taking part in 2025!

After discussing what a builder or engineer does, Polk Elementary School children in Alexandria wasted no time digging in to build a bridge or construct a maze. Their creations -- using sticks, pipe cleaners, straws, and stickers -- were truly one-of-a-kind works of imagination. Several of the older students tested their bridges to see how much weight they could hold. After building his bridge and picking a STEAM book, one student said, "This is officially the best library class ever!" Another said, "The best part is you get to use your imagination!"

Meanwhile, over at Carlin Springs Elementary in Arlington, first graders built some clever mazes, while -- before picking their own brand new STEAM book -- a fourth grade class listened to Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing. The book chronicles P.T. Barnum's stunt to encourage fearful New Yorkers to cross the Brooklyn Bridge -- the first ever steel wire suspension bridge. His elephant crossing plan worked! And the rest, as they say, is (engineering) history!

Author! Author!

RIF NOVA's Authors in Our Schools program continued into 2025, too, with two January visits and more to come. For details on these and other author visits to date, please click here! Thanks to this program, the students not only meet an author in person, but each participant receives an autographed book to take home for keeps.

Magic was in the air as fifth graders from Randolph Elementary in Arlington were treated to a visit by author Erin Stewart and got a copy of her book, The Forgotten Magic of Zoey Turner. "Every time you read or write a book," she told the students, "you are part of the magic of literacy!" In an Instagram post after the event, the author wrote: “I always love that I get to write as my job, but the days when I get to talk to young readers and see their eyes light up over a book…well, those days are extra special.” We at RIF NOVA think so, too!

With a puffy thundercloud pillow in hand, author Leah Moser shared her debut picture book -- I Am a Thundercloud -- with some of the youngest RIF NOVA readers at the Falls Church McLean Children's Center. The four- and five-year-olds echoed the big sounds of a thunderstorm -- BOOM, ROAR, CRASH -- as the author pointed out how the illustrations and colors change as the angry child in the book begins to feel better. One child noted: "If you know how to read, you can draw your own book when you’re, like, five (years old)!" Well, maybe not five, but we love the optimism!

Donated Book Program Updates

Books from our Donated Book Program are finding new homes with children here, there, and everywhere in the NOVA area! Over 40,000 books have been donated since the program started, to the delight of new readers who can love them all over again. A couple of recent donations are shared below. If you would like to donate new or very gently used books, here's the link for more information. At this link, you can also find info to request books for deserving children at your school or organization.

Families at London Towne Elementary enjoyed Donuts with Grownups with parent-child chats, hanging with the school mascot, and getting pics taken inside giant donut cut-outs during a breakfast on a cold January morning. London Towne, a Title 1 school in Fairfax County, requested books from the RIF NOVA Donated Book collection, and we were happy to deliver!

RIF NOVA provided a thousand books from our Donated Books program to Dumfries Elementary School in Prince William County for a pre-holiday special event called Books and Blankets. Liaison and reading specialist Emily DeCarolis wrote: "The students loved wearing their pajamas and listening to read-alouds while sitting on blankets in the gym. We did bilingual read-alouds in English and Spanish for all families. Families also got to play a winter themed bingo, enjoy hot chocolate and cookies, choose their books, and decorate winter bookmarks. We got great feedback from families, and many asked us to do it again next year!" Each child was able to choose two books for holiday break reading.

Sweet Endings!!!

Dumfries also held its annual Love of Reading celebration on Valentine's Day. In a room festooned with pink and red decorations, each child could choose one new RIF NOVA book to take home to keep. When liaison Emily DeCarolis asked who loves reading...hands went up across the classroom! (Big yay here!!!)

And, last but not least, Clifford, the RIF NOVA mascot, celebrates a birthday on Valentine's Day. What a fun day to read a Clifford book and to thank all those who have donned the Clifford costume at countless RIF NOVA events! Clifford just makes everything more fun!