First Book Fair of the Year

Sorry for the delay in posting. I had a family emergency. Here is my latest post...

I just finished my first Scholastic Book Fair of the year. Here are some things that helped make it a great fair:

1. Pennies, pennies, and more pennies. I had about $15 dollars in pennies and still ran out of pennies! My belief is, "You can never have too many pennies during Book Fair Week."

2. To keep the poster boxes orderly and display them in a concentrated area, I purchased a garment rack and used pant/skirt hangers from a retail store to display the posters. I had one of my helpers number the posters with a sticky note. We also taped them down because the stickies would fall off. (learned that lesson last year) Students would ask for the poster number and a helper would get it from the poster box.

3. To keep purloining at a minimum, I displayed the pencils, erasers, and pen like items on a table covered with clear plastic. I used book jacket covers, but a friend suggested the rolls of overhead film that are no longer being used. What a great and less expensive idea! I taped each item down and placed the price next to it on a sticky note. Students would get in line to check out and tell me or a helper the item they wanted and we would get it for them. I had everything on a rolling cart behind the cash register area.

 

4. Volunteers- Parent participation is a bit low at my campus, so I called on a few friends that had some time to volunteer. I also had a few students helpers to unpack, set up, and take down. Any and all help was and is greatly appreciated!

5. I went to Costco and purchased some snacks for my family event. I advertised the food and had quite a few parents and students come to the family events. I will try more events next year. One of my volunteers also volunteered at her daughter's school and suggested some of the events they hold for families. Here are some of the ideas: Feed Your Mind, Books and Breakfast, Muffins for Moms, Doughnuts for Dads, Grand Event (for Grandparents), and Afternoon Book Time (a play on Afternoon Tea Time).

6. Each day on announcements, which are televised, my Principal and APs would choose books from the fair to talk about and encourage students to buy. It was great to hear students say, "I'm looking for the book Mrs...... talked about on announcements."

Things to update for next year...

• Have more family events
• Advertise more
• Have more say in what books are sent to the fair (too many lower level books for my students)
• Use overhead roll instead of book jackets.
• More Pennies
• Promote All for Books more to get a better result.

Poetry Match Up

My fifth graders are studying poetry.  I made up index cards with 10 poetry terms, 10 definitions, and 10 examples of each. I made 6 sets to use at my library tables in Ziploc bags. Students worked in groups to match the terms, definitions, and examples. They had so much fun with this activity! After going over the answers, I asked them to "gently" mix up the cards again for the next class to unravel. I think they enjoyed doing that too. Lots of excited chatter, laughter, and victory cries during this activity. The teachers liked it as well. They thought it was a good review for the students.

I stumbled upon the book- Book Speak: Poems About Books by Laura Purdie Salas. It has poems about books and literary elements. At the end of the activity, I showed students the poem, "Calling All Readers" from the book. I read it aloud to the students. Then I had them identify any poetic devices they found in the poem. I also had students give examples of similes and metaphors for fun. One class is making alliterations and illustrating them for me to use as decorations/authentic work the library. Great activity for the week before Thanksgiving Break.

The Book It! Program from Pizza Hut

Along with our 40 book challenge, we are participating in the Pizza Hut Book It! Program.

Students have a monthly reading goal from Oct-March. When they accomplish their goal each month, they earn a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut.

The theme is "Read Your Heart Out". Jeff Kinney, author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, is partnering with them this year. On their site, www.bookitprogram.com, there are handouts, minute tracker, calendars, and more.

I met with each class to talk about the program and to build excitement.

Tech Tool- Prezi

I have discovered a neat presentation tool called Prezi. It is like a PowerPoint, but different and web-based. They have different types of accounts. I am currently using the free account.

You can find this tool at www.prezi.com. I saw this on the Elementary Librarian's page at http://elementarylibrarian.com/. She publicly shared her library introduction prezi, which I was able to copy and edit to fit my library. Below, I have linked to an original prezi on traditional literature.
You will also see some of the other prezis I have created.

One teacher looked at my Alternative Energy Sources prezi and liked it so much that she had her students make prezis as a culminating project to their unit of study.

As I find these cool tech tools, I will post about them.

eBooks

There is a lot of buzz about eBooks. Some people like them and some people despise them. I think they have a place in the library.

When I think about purchasing books, I want to get the biggest "bang for my buck", so to speak. If I can find an eBook on a curriculum related subject, I am going to purchase it over a physical book. One book in the library can only be checked out to one person at a time, thus limiting the effectiveness of the resource. Where as an eBook can be viewed by several people at a time, can be shared on a data projector for the whole class, it will not suffer "wear and tear", and/or be lost or taken from the collection.

These are just my thoughts. Tell me what you think.

Building Anticipation

To build anticipation for the new books in the library, I placed the books on a book cart and wrapped "do not cross Police line" tape around it. Everyone can see the books, but they will have to wait for processing to finish before they can check out the books. Students are drooling in anticipation for the new titles.

I can't remember where I got the idea from, but it's a great one. I was able to get police tape from a friend. It certainly draws attention.

Book Pass

I follow the blog, Shelf Consumed at http://www.shelfconsumed.org I read about her book pass lesson and thought I'd try it out with some of my classes.

The basic idea is to work with the teacher to pull books from the shelf from different genres and place them on the tables for students to view and make a "To Read List" or "Wish List". I placed table numbers on each table and placed 7 books of different genres on each table. Students were asked to bring their reading notebooks or "Wish List" to the library. We discussed how to choose books before we began the activity. I used my lovely timer to give the students 5 minutes at each table to view the books. After the time was up, each group rotated to another table.

At first, I was very nervous about how it would go and the transitions from table to table. The students absolutely loved the activity and wrote down so many titles. They wanted the books immediately and some had to be placed on waiting lists for the books. The teachers were pleased with the activity as well. They think it is a great idea, too.

I enjoyed seeing the students getting excited about the books and clamoring to get in line for the books. I had a student say, "There are so many good books in the library". That made me smile.

Creeptastic Choices

 

In honor of Halloween and scary books in general, I created a "Creeptastic Choices" Table display. Here are a few pictures before and after I placed books on the display.

As books are removed from the display, I replace it with another "spooky" choice.

 

 



Bulletin Boards

Sorry for delay in getting my bulletin board picture on here. Each time I read a book, I add a picture of the book onto the bulletin board. Many students see it and want to check out the books that I have read. I also put books that I am currently reading and "wish list" books.

Here are some pictures of other displays I have in the library.

This one is "Don't Judge a Book by it's Movie". I got some drama/film strip decorations and then pictures of books that have been made into movies. It is interesting to hear students and teachers say that they didn't know that a movie was based from a book.

I took the catch phrase "Dive into Reading" and added some flair. I bought the background from Target for $2.00. I also made speech bubbles to add humor to the display.

I am working on a scary book display, just in time for Halloween. Pictures to come soon.

Branching Out

This is my first "official" blog as a Library Information Specialist. I love searching the Internet for useful library ideas and looking at other library blogs. I get so much information from other professionals out there, that I wanted to share my ideas and experiences, too.

Last summer I read The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. It inspired me to challenge all my students and staff to a 40 book challenge. They are challenged to read books of different genres and are given a chart to mark their progress. We are continuing this challenge again this year.

There is no "pass/fail" to reading the 40 books, it is about opening up the world of reading to everyone. Kids that didn't read a book last year, may read 5 this year- reading more than they had previously. I had reluctant readers coming to me saying, "I didn't like to read, but now I do." To me that is success- that is growth. I will take a picture of my bulletin board and post it soon.