For Librarians and Media Specialists
Need an idea? Ready for something new? Is there something you forgot that would be fun to do again? Here are some suggestions you can try. These are some of the things we do in our libraries that we find create a fun and interesting place for the students to come to. They may be ways of teaching skills, promoting books or the library, fundraising ideas, or activities just for the fun of it. Some we made-up on our own, while others we learned through sharing with other librarians. Of course, they are all adaptable if you don't feel they are exactly right for you. Read on to find out about...
Book Promotions
During orientation, wear different t-shirts that promote reading to set a fun tone for the year ahead.Make badges to wear using book cover pictures from catalogs.
Zerox pictures from books and paste them on folders, bulletin boards, or ?????.
There are so many ways to recommend books. Booktalks are the first to come to mind, but there are other people who enjoy books, so let's let the students hear from them. Think of ways to let them know what others like to read. One way is.....
"My Favorite Book From Our Library is...." Ask all the staff (principals, teachers, assistants, kitchen staff, custodians, superintendent... everyone!) what their favorite book was when they were the age of your students. Write the list and display it where all can see (cafeteria, office windows, or even in the hallways) then pull those books and display them in the library for the students to read. You may even find a great book to order this way. You may be surprised at how much the students will go over that list.
Book Commercials can be taped in your library with a camcorder then played back during recesses, after school, or even class times. If you've ever watched Reading Rainbow, they do it each show. If you ask, some teachers may give students extra credit.
Make a card file or data base of brief recommendations by students.
Bring in 5 items -- 5 different prints of ties, 5 different shoes, 5 items from the house, 5 toys. Show them to the students and ask them to name a story that one of the items reminds them of. It may relate directly or abstractly. Examples: a fancy high heel - "Cinderella" for her glass slipper, Dorothy's red shoes from "The Wizard of Oz", "Barn Dance" because the character liked to dance and you might wear fancy shoes to a dance; a green tie - the color in "The One in the Middle is a Green Kangaroo", color again in "Green Eggs and Ham", the color of frogs as in "Green Wilma"; etc. The students start thinking creatively about how to make connections to books they have heard or read.
Special Books -- I pick out a variety of books either thematically or randomly and check them out to "Special". Being automated makes this easy, but the same can be done with putting a yellow star or other special shape in the pocket with the checkout card. I then reshelve them. When a student brings one up to check out, my computer tells me that this book is checked out to "Special". This is when I enter the student's name, then make a todo that the student has found a special book and they get to choose from a basket of assorted goodies. Usually they're pencils, erasers, samples, or bookmarks. The students get a lot of recognition from their classmates and feel "special", as well as getting a good book to read. If I don't want to explain how they are chosen, I get out of having to explain why that book was special and another wasn't, by saying the computer chooses the special books, not me.
Prizes and Recognition
Some of our ideas involve prizes. Prizes are flexible. Be creative. Most of the time recognition is all they need.....that they did it first, a stamp on the back of their hand, or their name or class listed on a poster. Sometimes, a handshake makes the student happy. Maybe their table can look for books first. It can be fun to post results of how the other classrooms did. They enjoy competition. Inexpensive (and some really cheap) prizes can be found in catalogs received at every school. With a little shopping, they can add up to less than two cents a student! Don't forget, if you don't fundraise, maybe your school has a parent association or group in the community who may be willing to help out.Library Student of the Month
"Library Classic Reader" is a way to choose a student each week to be singled out. They can receive a pen or some other prize. Take a Polaroid picture and display it in the library on a special frame. The student can be chosen for a number of reasons, from simply sharing what they are reading with you to pushing in their chair, so this is a great way to give recognition to someone truly deserving or who needs that little special attention. This can be an alternative to Student of the Month.Seasoned Reading
As an example : at Halloween time, have a scary story reading. At one school, six teachers or volunteers come in during their prep or scheduled time to read to a group of students for a treat. The students may be a few from each class as a reward or however you decide with the teachers.Have a sign up list for teachers announcing what times you can go to their class and do a quick read for them. Example : Christmas : 4 - 6 classrooms, up to 5 minutes each, between 1-1:30, pop in and read a Christmas poem, a couple of riddles, a finger play, ?...the possibilities are endless and fun.
Recycle those greeting cards by writing a short poem or riddles in them, which go with the theme of the card. They can be used as quick read alouds that go with the theme of your story time, or just to add something different to library time.
Christmas Story Shape Exchange: One fun activity is to have the students sit in a circle, and give each one a shape. Read a Christmas story to them and each time a Christmas word is read, they have to pass the shape to their neighbor. It is not a quiet activity, but is it ever fun! You might make 3 practice "passes" and decide which way to pass them, so they get the hang of it as you emphasize the Christmas words. When you read the story, you can be a subtle or obvious as you want with the words. I've done this with K-6th grades (it's helpful to have an assistant to get the K-1's going). If the story doesn't have enough special words in it, throw in a couple more. If the story is running too long for a class, edit out some of it. When the story is over, prizes are given out for the different shapes they have in hand: candy canes for the Candy Cane, pencils for the Star, erasers for the Pine Tree, etc. Hmmmm, why just Christmas stories? There are other holidays and other themes that can be highlighted!
Reading Programs : Accelerated Reader, RIF and others
Work with the teachers doing these promotions by providing a place to have give-aways or rewards for points earned. Maybe you can provide a Free Reading Pass (see below). If your schedule allows, offer to have the give-away in your library or media center.Prizes from the Library
Provide a "prize" as a pass for a 1/2 hour free reading time you set up in the library. Make a Free Reading Pass for teachers to give students when they are doing great work in the classroom, meeting reading goals, or someone who just could use a little extra attention. Besides being able to read anything in the library, I pull out puzzles, puzzle books, games and floor pillows I keep just for this time.Display names of children who reach exceptional reading goals (this may vary from child to child by their abilities, so you may want to work with a teacher).
Create a multicolor caterpillar using construction paper circles with the names of children on them. Staple them together and tape or pin them to the wall, bookcases, bulletin boards, ?. They can write on each circle how many points they have received, number of books read, etc... The students get excited when it starts growing over itself or winding it's way around obstacles. Maybe at the end of the year, you can bundle up the caterpillar to hang in a large, clear plastic bag, which a week later is transformed into a large colorful butterfly!
Fundraising
Have students bring pennies to try fill a 5-gallon water bottle. They love to see it fill. It's probably best to have a goal in mind for the grand total. For extra fun, have students guess how many are in it for a prize. One library raised $217.00 one year! Since you could raise quite a bit of money, you could offer a nice prize.Bookfairs
Any child who spends money at the bookfair gets their name entered in a drawing for a prize (Beanie Babie, book, an autographed baseball...)The class spending the most money earns a pizza party.
Any class spending the most gets $50 worth of books for their teacher's classroom library (this helps get teacher support).
Buy-one-get-one-free gets those books selling! Some bookfairs offer this method of sale. There is no profit for us, but it promotes READING!
Accelerated Reading points can add to bonus $$$ for students at the bookfair. It will mean less profits for you, but you are promoting reading. Decide ? points = ?$.
Voting to Read
Get involved in the California Young Reader Medal voting. Buy enough paperback copies of your grade level nominees so that everybody can read and vote. This may not be in your budget, but maybe the principal or parent support group can help with this. Not all teachers may want to get involved, but do it with those who do or any student who wants to.How about asking students what their favorite books are then have them vote on which are best liked by the entire campus?
Competition
Students love to compete. They don't always expect big prizes. Sometimes just knowing they did better is plenty (besides, where is it written you should always get something?)Have them memorize a short library poem. Give out bookmarks you can make or purchase with a short, well known poem. Look in any library supply catalog for lots of printed ones. Within a set time period, anyone who can recite it from memory after school or recess gets a free pen or pencil. This is a good September project to have fun and get the kids into the library.
As part of National Library Week I have a bookmark contest. It is open to any student who wants to design a bookmark (could be more than one if you decide). You can pick a theme or just one they would enjoy having. Have prizes for grade levels. Just for fun, have a teacher category. You can be the judge or invite judges in. To make the bookmarks easier to handle, I provide a blank bookmark on the information sheet to use as a pattern. Display all the bookmarks for the students to see, if possible. Besides the library, maybe you can display them in the office, cafeteria or other visible place. This is a good promotion with students, parents and staff. Laminate them when the contest is over and let students have them back to use.
Xerox and laminate bookmarks each month. There are lots of teacher books that have monthly and seasonal bookmarks for reproduction. You can get 8 or more to a page. Towards the end of the year, ask any student who has kept them all, to bring them to you and they can win a prize. (You may not want to tell them ahead of time that is what you'll do unless you are prepared to have prizes for most of the students)
Gifts from the Library
A couple of days before school is out, go to the classrooms and give each student a bookmark and encourage them to read over the summer.At any holiday, give each of them an appropriate bookmark.
Skills Made Easy
Treasure Hunt of the Week. Have students do a worksheet which they can get in the library. Maybe you can arrange with the teachers that it can be turned in to them for extra credit. An example : "Newsmap of the Week" to be turned in to history teachers."Hop to It" or "Go Fishing" are popular skills games in my K-6 library. I divide the class into groups (usually how many can sit at a table), then give each a fish or frog shape with a Dewey Decimal number written on it. When I give the word, all have to search for a book with that number on it then show me the fish and tell me the title. Of course, I pick only Dewey numbers of subjects I know easily. Fiction works, too. They are not to bring the book, because who wants to take the time to shelve them all? If their title is correct, I take the fish and they get to return to their table. It only takes a few minutes and the first table finished wins and gets to use the library first.
Zerox pictures from popular (and not quite so popular) books and put 4 or 5 on a page. Students must identify which books they come from. If you are going to offer prizes, try it once without prizes to get an idea of how it will go.
Give students a word or subject that they have to locate 3 sources of information for. This is good for reference skills.
Use seasonal shapes or notepad sheets to write titles of books and their call numbers. Laminate them if you want to reuse them, then put them into a decorative basket or bucket so the students can look through them for a related book to check out. They'll be using call numbers to locate them, reinforcing that skill without realizing it. An example would be an Easter basket with paper shapes of bunnies, eggs, flowers, butterflies, etc. This way you can do Easter books as well as books on flowers, baby animals, or any spring subject, fiction as well as non-fiction.
The Clothespin Game is a real popular "game" that reinforces skills or behaviors for all ages. You may have played it at a shower or party. At the beginning of the period, clip a clothespin to each students' sleeve. Explain that they get to keep the clothespin as long as they leave it alone and they do certain library behaviors, ie: they are quiet in the library, they treat books and/or each other with respect, they push in their chairs, turn their pages correctly, or any number of things. You can concentrate on one behavior or combine some. Then explain that you, their teacher and/or helpers will be watching and if you see them do something incorrectly, you get to take their clothespin. Of course, if you take one, make sure they understand why. Then when they leave the library, take the clothespin then give them some kind of reward. I usually use the little novelty erasers (less than $4 a gross), those free promotional bookcovers schools get, or a bookmark. Anything will do. Not only will you be amazed at the power of a little clothespin, but you'll be surprised at how many times they want to play it. I limit it to a few times a year. You don't want to wear a good thing out.
Perfect Returns
Using freebies from the bookfair, paperbacks on sale, or paperback donations, we help increase the classroom libraries and encourage students to bring their books back on time. When the class gets Perfect Returns, the teachers choose a book for their class' reward. All students must have their books returned on time that day to earn the prize. I keep a poster on the wall listing how many times their class has earned it and give students from the two top earning classes a pencil at the end of the semesters.
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