Canadian writer Lucy Maud Montgomery was born on this day in 1874 on Prince Edward Island. Montgomery is best known the author of the beloved novel Anne of Green Gables. Montomgery wrote 20 novels, hundreds of poems and more. Perhaps her greatest honour came when Anne of Green Gables won the inaugural tournament of Young Adult Lit March Madness at LTSS in 2022.
Can you identify champions of peace? Give this “Sporcle” quiz a try.
November is Peace Month in your School Library
November is International Games Month @ Your Library but you can celebrate all year long in so many ways, including enjoying our subscription to “Games World of Puzzles” magazine. Come down and check it out.
The founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak, was born in 1469 in the north-west of India, (what is now Pakistan.) He would go on to become the first of the Ten Gurus of Sikhism. In 2023 the celebration of the birth of Guru Nanak is November 27. The day is also referred to as Guru Nanak’s Prakash Utsav and Guru Nanak Jayanti.
Most Canadians of Indian heritage who live in Canada are Sikhs, including many students at Lord Tweedsmuir, and in communities throughout Surrey and Greater Vancouver. If you are not Sikh, learn more about Guru Nanak, Sikhism, and the Sikh community. What a great way to better understand your friends, neighbours and fellow Canadians.
Find out more:
From the evening of November 25 through November 26, people of the Baha’i faith celebrate the Day of the Covenant. This is a Holy Day on the Baha’i calendar, a celebration of Baha’u’llah’s appointment of his eldest son, ʻAbdu’l-Bahá, as the Center of His Covenant.
As we enter a season of “Holidays and Holy Days” we will look at the celebrations and festivals of Canadians, and people from around the world, who represent a wide variety of religions, beliefs and cultures.
For more on the Baha’i faith, including its festivals and holy days, check out some of the following links:
Baha’i Faith (International)
Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends, family and neighbours! Along with Turkey and football games, another staple of American Thanksgiving for many is listening to the 18 minute classic, “Alice’s Restaurant.”
November has been Peace month in the School Library, with an emphasis on understanding peace education, the antiwar movements, civil disobedience and other non-violent means of social change. Such themes overlap with American Thanksgiving in “Alice’s Restaurant.”
Originally released in 1967, Arlo Guthrie’s 18 minute long recording of “Alice’s Restaurant” has become on of the most famous protest songs against the Vietnam War. The events described in the song, beginning with a Thanksgiving celebration amongst friends during the sixties, were the inspiration for a film which was released in 1969.
More than 50 years later Guthrie’s signature song is a staple of classic rock radio stations on and around American Thanksgiving.
Find out more:
November is Peace Month at your School Library. Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:
Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:
Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American family, friends and neighbours. The American version of Thanksgiving marks the unofficial start to the “Holiday Season.” We look forward to a time of holiday cheer over the coming weeks. Be sure to visit us in your school library to find out more, especially in December when our theme is “Holidays and Holy Days.”
November is International Games Month @ Your Library. Classes have been invited down to the School Library to enjoy our selection of board games, card games, party games and other live and in-person games.
Thanks to Mr. Birnbaum for bringing his E.L.L. classes down. Games are a great way for these students to develop their language skills. More importantly, everyone was having fun.
We asked LTSS Teachers and Staff about some of their favourite games to play. Here are some of the replies:
Mr. Ferrier played Axis & Allies when he was a kid. Now he loves Yahtzee, and the My Little Pony game, although his daughter beats him every time.
Ms. Truss loves Arkham Horror. She also mentioned Love Letter, Jaipur and Taco Cat.
Mr. Donaldson’s favourites include Settlers of Catan, Sequence, Cribbage, D&D, Magic: The Gathering, and Chess
Other teacher favourites:
November is International Games Month @ Your Library
Rage Against the Machine have many titles that could be picked for lists of the greatest protest songs. One of the most overtly antiwar tracks is “Bulls on Parade.” (1996).
Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal
I walk the corner to the rubble that used to be a library
Line up to the mind cemetery now
What we don’t know keeps the contracts alive and movin’
They don’t gotta burn the books they just remove ’em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells
Rally ’round the family, pockets full of shells
Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:
November is Peace Month at your School Library
Canadian writer Margaret Atwood was born on this day in 1939 in Ottawa. Atwood is a prolific writer of dozens of titles, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, graphic novels and children’s books. Margaret Atwood is best known for 1985’s The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian novel that is perhaps even more relevant today than it was when it won the Governor-General’s Award in 1985 and the Arthur C. Clark Award in 1987, and was a finalist for the Booker Prize. Atwood did go on to win the prestigious Booker Prize, for best English language novel, in 2000 for The Blind Assassin, and was a co-winner in 2019 for The Testaments, a much celebrated sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale.
November is International Games Month @ Your Library
Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School Library 