Storytime in your School Library!

Need a FUN and easy library program? Try this! Once a month, I host a program called Lion Cub Storytime. Lion Cubs are children who will one day be going to my school. Most of them are 3 - 4 years old, but I have had some toddlers too. Usually, these kids are younger siblings of students at my school, but sometimes we have kids who just live in the area. Anyone is welcome! At the beginning of the year, I send a blurb to my classroom teachers about the program that they can copy and paste into their classroom newsletter. I post information about the program on the school webpage, library webpage, and in the school newsletter. I also make sure the folks who register new students in the office know about the program (this is especially important around Kindergarten registration time). When planning when to hold your monthly storytime, choose a day where your local pre-school does not have school (Fridays seem to work well for us). For the last few years, my storytime has been at 9am and we often have a good crowd. Select a theme each month and plan your storytime around that theme. I usually follow this format: read a book, do a fingerplay or flannel board activiy; read a book; sing a song; read a book; do a craft; check out a book; have a snack.
I get lots of ideas from Pinterest and from some of my favorite storytime blogs. I also write about each storytime on my blog - feel free to be inspired by one of my storytime plans!
My favorite places online to gather ideas are:
storytime katie
storytiming
Mel's Desk
I collect ideas I find on Pinterest on my Lion Cub Storytime board - follow it!
I love our Lion Cub Storytime and I have heard from many parents who love it too. The Lion Cubs who come to our school in Kindergarten are more confident when school starts. They feel familiar with the school and our library and knowing someone in the building helps both the student and the parent when the first days of Kindergarten roll around.
Have fun with this storytime - you don't have to worry about Common Core or other academic standards - you can simply encourage and foster a love of reading, storytime, and libraries. Perfect!

Valerie Byrd Fort, Teacher Librarian
New Providence Elementary School
Lexington, South Carolina
www.valeriebyrdfort.com

Taking Care of Library Books!

Kindergarten students came to my library last week for their first checkout! What an exciting day! They love to choose a book, are excited to learn they can take it home, and can't wait to come back the next week for a new book! Every year, before their first checkout, I do a lesson about taking care of your library books. It is fun, easy to plan, and seems to work! I start my sharing with them that they will get to checkout a book, but first we have to make sure they can take care of that book. I tell them that I have a friend who is going to share with them ways to take care of their books. I introduce them to my friend, Mr. Wiggle. I show them a Mr. Wiggle stuffed animal that I made with green tights and have them all say "hello" to him. Then, I read Mr. Wiggle's Book by Paula M. Craig. During the read aloud, I will ask them a lot of questions about what is happening in the book. For example, do YOU eat while you read library books? What's wrong with leaving a library book outside? After reading the book, I show them a book bag that Mr. Wiggle likes to keep all of his important book stuff in. I tell them that we are going to see what is in his book bag and that they are going to tell me if it is something GOOD to have around library books or something BAD to have around library books. I hand out laminated cards that we've made. One side is red with a sad face and it says BAD; the other side is green with a happy face and it says GOOD. After each student has a card, I go through the bag. In the bag is a water bottle, a pack of gum, a stuffed animal, a picture of a baby, a picture of a puppy, a container of yogurt, markers, a flashlight, scissors, and wet wipes (for clean hands). As I hold up each item, students show me if the item is GOOD or BAD. After going through the items in the book bag, I collect the cards, we say "thank you" to Mr. Wiggle and we check out our library books! I also send home a letter to our kindergarten parents introducing them to Mr. Wiggle and sharing some suggestions of ways to enjoy and care for library books at home. I also include in the letter when their child's library day is and a cut out template for a bookmark to color and use. I think Mr. Wiggle really helps our kindergarten students get started on the right foot when it comes to checking out and taking care of their library books!
Valerie Byrd Fort www.valeriebyrdfort.com

Get to Know You Activity

Well, today was my first day back at school.  This is the beginning of my second year being out of a school library because of budget cuts.  I am working as a program assistant in a Junior High.  Anyway, I just wanted to share a cute first day activity that a teacher did in her class.  I thought that a school librarian could do the exact same thing with a class on their first visit to the library.

She made a simple powerpoint of things that were true/false about her life.  If the item was true the students had to walk to one side of the room, if the item was false they walked to the other side of the room.  I liked this activity because it got the students moving.  The students were given a small piece of construction paper to fold in half hot dog style.  On one side they wrote their first and last name-perfect for name tags.  On the inside, each student wrote two things about themselves.  However, the statements could be true or false!  The rest of the class had to guess.  Simple, but yet fun and engaging.

Just thought I would share in case you were still looking for a beginning of the year activity.  Great for older students.

Fall, fall, fall!

How many of you are still stressing over that one big bulletin board that is totally empty?  Well, here is another idea for a bulletin board that I used in my library one time.  Again, my idea, and a very creative volunteer created it!  Remember to always tap in to your parent volunteers!

I plan on making my next posts about some great fall read alouds for kindergarten and primary students.  Also, since we have the big presidential election coming up this year, I have a fun activity I used to do in the library that involved the whole school!  I will share soon!  Stay tuned!

Debt Forgiveness.

Do you purchase books for your library collection out of your own pocket?

I assume not, but wanted to make sure the obvious question was out of the way first. I ask because many a librarian, school and public, gets a bad rap as an overdue overlord, a cost kaiser, a rule rajah, a... um... prince or princess of penalties!

Is that being too harsh? Or are we the ones that need to loosen up a bit?

Colleagues in my district go round and round over what to do about overdues. Do you forgive and forget? Do you maintain the lost book record throughout the school year, but allow the student to continue to check out materials? Do you restrict access to the collection? Just how strict is appropriate for this, the most heinous of all library crimes?

We've tried out a couple of things in our library over the past six years but may have finally stumbled upon a solution that gets the books back without the gluttonous punishments: reintroducing the ROBOT Challenge!

Oh, ROBOT wall! How your weekly sticky postings drew their gazes!

Back in April I mentioned on this very blog that we were in need of something new. We were losing far too many books each year (an average of 150 books not returned annually at a value of $13/book = approximately $2,000). True, this wasn't our money. It was the state's money. But this is no excuse to watch thousands of dollars walk out of our library each year.

I know how this could get a librarian mad. I know how this could make you want to tag the offending students' names in the CIRC and prevent them from ever checking out a book again. I know this could turn a really sweet librarian into the Library Dragon. But what if you could let go of all of those angry feelings and find a way to help the students be more responsible in the process?

Well, I'm happy to report that the ROBOT challenge worked! Sending home overdue slips weekly and keeping parents informed of what materials their kids had checked out seemed to be the ticket to cultivating responsible library patrons.

The shining stars meant ZERO overdue books, which also meant a popsicle party... my treat!

By the end of the year we had just 15 books remaining. This is huge! And even better, we didn't have to lock any of our students up in the dungeon or threaten to eat their tater tots for the remainder of the school year. :)

I've had a lot on my heart this year around the topic of debt forgiveness.

• Are we holding the children prisoner to their lost books? 
• Are we offering alternatives to patrons who cannot afford to replace lost books?
• Are we understanding of the various outside factors contributing to the problem?
• Are we holding repeat offenders responsible?

...so we've resolved the following pledge to our patrons.

• We will forgive lost books at the start of the school year following Back to School Night. No questions asked.
• We will allow students to continue checking out books even after a book has been marked long overdue or lost. Limited to one book per visit until overdue book is returned.
• We will allow students to "work off" their lost book fine by volunteering for one week in the library media center. Responsibility demonstrated is a fine resolved.
• We will limit students who continually lose books to keeping library books in their classroom. Some home situations just aren't ideal for library books.
• We will love you no matter what. Books get lost. If you didn't mean for it to happen, we believe you.

What steps are you taking toward debt forgiveness? We'd love to adopt some new practices to continue better serving our patrons.

- Matthew
busylibrarian.com

Back to School Orientations

This week is orientation week in the Media Center.  I usually show a PowerPoint and review the rules and sections of the Media Center as well as the procedures for checking out a book. While planning out my orientations this summer, I came across some cute videos on YouTube that pinned.  I thought you might like them, too:

Shelf Marker Song

This is a short video demonstrating how to use a shelf marker using a song.  It is to the tune of "The Hokey Pokey."  Granted the first part about the picture on the shelf marker is unique to that library, but you could always start the video after that part, or if you are really brave, just sing the song yourself.

Sammy the Shelf Marker

This is a super cute video.  Again, it has a few parts that are unique to the library it was created for, but it is still usable for demonstration purposes.

How to Use a Shelf Marker in the Library

This video is performed by upper elementary students and is also a demonstration of how to use a shelf marker. I like that the students are acting it out.  You can hear a librarian reading a "Little Old Lady Who Swallowed a..." something book in the background, which makes me think, "WOW! Now that's a library!  Lots going on at once."   I don't think it's too distracting, and again, I like that the kids are the ones demonstrating the proper and incorrect ways to use a shelf marker.  I especially like the sword fight scene.  LOL

Library Manners

This one has been on Pinterest for awhile.  I repinned it from another SLMS.  It is short and sweet, so it's perfect for PreK, K and 1st grade classes.  

 

 Scaredy Squirrel Goes to the Library

This is another cute video.  2nd-3rd graders might enjoy it. 
I like that it is narrated by kids.

 How to Take Care of Library Books

This is probably my favorite video.  It was created by a librarian and even has places built in to stop and discuss each scene.  It's perfect for 1st and 2nd grades...maybe even 3rd.

And I have to throw this one in just for fun.  Being as it's set in a college library, it's definitely not for elementary, but I found it entertaining, anyway.  Hope it makes you smile, too.

The FUNdamentals of Book Care in Five Easy Lessons

Happy back to school!

Fall Bulletin Board Display

Hello All!  I am excited to join Sharing the Shelves.  Over the past year, I have found so many amazing blogs for classroom teachers.  I just discovered Sharing the Shelves last night and I was so excited to see that this blog is about school libraries!  Yes!!
I have been a teacher for 10 years.  Four as a classroom teacher and six as a librarian.  I was in a district for 8 years when I accepted a new job in a different district.  Low and behold I was cut.  As a result I subbed in three different districts this past year.  Still looking for that new job!
Since I don't have the opportunity to set up my own library this fall, I would like to share some of my ideas from the last several years.  I hope some of my ideas will inspire you!
As I'm sure many of you are getting ready for the first day, here is a picture of a fall bulletin board that I had outside my library.  I was the librarian in an early childhood building for four years.

I can't take all the credit.  Several years ago I had a very creative volunteer.  I would give her the ideas and she would run with the ideas!  If you look closely, we printed off colored pictures of books to display on the leaves-books about fall, apples, trees, etc.  Great themes for September in kindergarten and first grade.