The Gift That Keeps On Giving

After my toughest class came to visit me this week, a damper fell on my mood and my first day back after the holiday break. After school, one of our students came up to me with a wonderfully wrapped gift. The student explained that she wanted me to choose a new student each week to have the privilege :) of checking out a third book. Each week the book is returned, I choose a new student to check it out. HOW SWEET IS THAT?! I think it is an amazing gift to give to others and am so proud of this sweet girl for giving to others at our school.

I am thinking I might have the students sign the book somewhere inside when they check it out for an extra bit of fun!

Back to School!

Welcome back! We are so excited to have our students back after a relaxing summer. After the bond passing and a bit of push back, we finally got approval for the building of a new school!!! We are SO ready. Our student growth continues, which means our classroom numbers grow larger and with such limited space, we are just finding a way to make it work this year. If you are visiting the building and see things out of their places (music instruments in the hallway or library, etc.) know that it is not ideal for any of us but because we know we will be rewarded with a beautiful new building in the near-ish future, we are rolling with what we've got for the time being.

Orchestra will be held in the library this year so that will be interesting but we're rocking it! Because of the overly-shared spaces this year, the library does not have an elaborate them. I stuck to colorful cleanliness this year.

Here's a sneak peak into what we're looking like this year! 

As the librarian to our school and your students, I just want to say how much joy this job brings. I love interacting with the kids and this year I have planned specific activities and projects that will allow me to connect with everyone in smaller group environments. If you ever have a question, please stop by and see me. As long as I am not in the middle of a class, I am more than happy to chat!

I also want to open up your student's library time to you! If you would like to volunteer in the library during any part of the day or during your student's class time, I would LOVE to have you. Please see me for details!  

Circulation Counter Makeover

When you are working with an old building.... and I mean super old building, you are constantly "just makin' it work!" I am always trying to pull every amount of creativity to make my space fun and "new" for the kids each year. One hurdle is trying to cover up this....ugly whatever this is on the counter.

I usually do a fun quote to go with whatever theme I have picked for the year but let's be honest... kids like to kick and pick and jump and the posters I put so much thought and time into usually end up ripped or torn and I'm not sure how much I love that! I was able to save this Harry Potter poster and maybe take it to our new building if and when we get our new build... cross your fingers for Fall 2018!

I purchased so many books this year for our library and many of the children's picture books come with the protective covers on them. While I love them, I have a hard time leaving them on. They are beautiful and serve a lovely purpose, but as soon as the students take them off or rip them, there goes the AR sticker, bar code and shelving info. and then what... more work for me and I'm not sure how much I love that either! 

I have been collecting them all year and wanting to do something fun with them like hang them from the ceiling as decorative banners, but when your library is used a a multi-purpose room (voting, meetings, lunches, and especially picture day, etc.) you are sort of limited on what you can and cannot do when it comes to hanging things from the ceiling.

I had the perfect idea come to me yesterday and I am loving the outcome. A way I can recycle these fun covers, provide entertainment AND due to the material these covers are made out of the kids can pick and kick and I'm pretty sure it will withhold with all the love it is bound to see next year. 

And the final bonus, we have all of these books! So when a student sees a cover and wants the book, he or she can check it out.  Wahoo! 

Don't Let the Pigeon...

I have a secret. Until last week, I had never read a Mo Willems book but this week I may be his biggest fan! The pigeon books are a total hoot.

The way I see it is basically adult sarcasm from a child's mouth, excuse me, pigeon's mouth. It's fun to read and easy to understand and the kids love the stubbornness and child-like characteristics of this all-too-relate-able character. 

Willems also has many other fun characters to laugh along with and we highly recommend you do!

Luck O' the Irish

This St. Patty's Day was too much fun, plus, it was on a Friday! We has little green monsters all over the building last week, myself included. To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I read two of the new books we purchased with our $5,000 grant. Of course they are similar, but I would have never guessed that they would have been as perfectly matched as they were! 

How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace had some pretty fun illustrations of how you might set up a trap to catch a leprechaun. The absence of the leprechaun's face made the reader more intrigued, and just like the classic movie that keeps the suspect's face hidden, this book has similar mystery!

The Night Before St. Patrick's Day shows how a brother and sister are sure to catch a leprechaun with all the nifty traps they set. Side note: I did not know the leprechauns are supposedly mischievous? Both stories this week, spoiler alert, showed the leprechauns causing some major chaos. I suppose need to read up on my Irish folklore!

Each book is a fun and easy read and perfect for youngsters wanting to set some leprechaun traps next year!

Press Here for Giggles and Squeals!

I knew I loved this book but I had no idea how much the students would love it until we read it last week. It was such a success, I am already looking into similar books to purchase before the year ends.

Get ready as the book instructs you to press, blow, and clap along to make the dots change shape, color, order and size! The kids were roaring with laughter and screaming from excitement. It was too much fun!

Good news - there are more books like this one from Herve Tullet! Click here link for Amazon (personal favorite) details and pricing!

Love All Around

February is full of eventful days. Groundhogs Day, President's Day, Valentine's Day, etc. We only have a few weeks to cram in fun Valentine books before the day comes and goes and the kids are on to the next fun thing.

This week we read the Love Monster by Rachel Bright. I love that it's love at first sight for the kids. One of the pages talks about how he's googly-eyed and not-so-cute, but the kids beg to differ!

This book is about self-acceptance and learning to love your differences, even when it feels a little lonely. I drew and copied a Love Monster for the students to color - BIG hit! :)

Love from the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle has many familiar characters, written in Valentine form. It is a quick read, but super sweet and fun. 

Lastly, I have been purchasing books like CRAZY lately, annual library funds, grant money, library donations, etc. One of the orders came in this week with the cutest, tongue-twister of a book called A Greyhound and a Groundhog by Emily Jenkins and illustrations by Chris Appelhans. It looks adorable and while it may not be about a groundhog seeing his shadow, this is one watercolor groundhog you won't be able to resist! 

A Wintery Week with Jan Brett

Happy New Year! It has been a crazy winter for us so far this year. We were meant to return to school on January 4th and have had six snow days between then and now! And add Martin Luther King Jr. day into the mix... needless to say, we're all walking around like martians, trying to get back into the swing of things! 

January in the library is always filled with all the winter-y things: snowmen, snowflakes, mittens, hot cocoa, etc. This week we are reading The Mitten and Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett. Reading these this week brought back memories from when I read them as a kid and the cleverness of each story. They are so fun and mischievous and have some pretty amazing pictures to go along with.

Just how many creatures can fit inside this snow-white glove? Read the story and find out!

We discussed that these trolls do not have pretty colored hair, since the movie trolls came out recently, the students loved the trickery all the same! 

There's weatherman rumor that more snow is on its way, so bundle up... it was 2 degrees this morning... hang on to your mittens and watch out for dog-snatching trolls!