Library Rules from the Black Lagoon.

Class rules are tiresome, boring, and quickly forgotten. It's too bad, too. Students should remember to be kind, safe, responsible, respectful, and silly as often as possible. 

So, taking inspiration from Mike Thaler's The Librarian from the Black Lagoon, our 2nd grades made up some new rules of their own. But be advised. Forgetting to follow the rules may result in some pretty sticky situations.

Displayed on the library office windows for all passing students to view.

• Do not rip the pages out of a book OR ELSE you'll be locked in a dungeon!
• Do not kick the shelves OR ELSE you'll be flattened by a pile of books!
• Do not steal the books OR ELSE you'll be locked in a yard with a 3-headed dog!
• Do not run OR ELSE you'll be stapled to the wall!
• Never hit a classmate OR ELSE you'll be locked in a room with hungry gorillas!

Here's the how to make this easy activity a big success:

1. Read aloud The Librarian from the Black Lagoon (of course) so the kids can have a sense of the horrible punishments a librarian could enact. 
2. Let students brainstorm a list of basic, daily rules for inside the library. (Think book care as well as behavior.)
3. Add on ridiculous OR ELSE clauses to each rule. Keep them appropriate, but silly. ("Sit in a tank full of spiders" is funny, but "Sit in a tank full of spiders who eat you until you die" crosses a line.)
4. Post for the whole school to see, but don't let them in on the secret. 

Each of our four 2nd grade classes came up with unique rules.

As soon as a couple students notice the posters, reactions ranging from bewilderment to bawling with laughter will abound... and you just may get a couple new rule-followers out of it, too!

- Matthew
busylibrarian.com