Hello,
I’ve mentioned the idea of having a Book Swap previously, but it has been a while and I thought you might not mind a repeat. One student came to me at the first of the year and asked if we were going to have a book swap this year. We talked about it and his recommendation was to have two book swaps; one in December and another one again in May. I told him that he had a good idea and to remind me about it the first of November. This morning he came to my desk, and reminded me. I guess it is close enough to the first of November to remind me, so I thanked him and he went on his way.
Here’s what I do when I have a book swap.
A few weeks before the swap I make an announcement letting students and parents know about the swap, what kind of books to bring, and what to expect. I put this in our newsletter and I put up posters around the school. I also announce it during library classes for a week or two before the swap.
I hold the Book Swap for only one day and a Wednesday works best for me. I don’t have it on Thursday or Friday since that would interfere with my library classes. Students bring their books to swap on the Monday and Tuesday just before the swap and I give them a ticket for each book they bring. The first year I carefully checked each book as it was brought in and would not give any tickets for books that did not fit the guidelines. I didn’t have too many, but the disappointed faces I saw were too much for me. I now don’t worry about subject matter or condition of the book; I just give them a ticket for each book. The reason I don’t mention subject matter or condition is because I don’t want any student to feel hurt or upset. Later, I weed out any inappropriate books and quietly dispose of the few that may show up. I have extra books that I put in the swap which help make up the difference. I print out tickets as needed so I don’t waste paper. You can easily make your own ticket.
I put twelve tickets on one sheet of paper and cut off the amount a student needs. Students are responsible for their own tickets and if they lose them, that is unfortunate. I recommend they keep them in their desks or lockers so they will be here for the swap.
Only students with tickets are allowed into the swap until after the lunch period is over. Then, any student may come through and ‘buy’ books either with a ticket or for the nominal price of 10 cents each. Money goes to the library. After the school day is over, any books left over belong to the library for me to do with what I want.
On the day of the swap, I let the older students come through first. I learned this reading about another swap at a school. That school’s first swap had the younger students coming through and choosing thick novels that were appropriate for the older students and by the time the older kids came to the swap, only younger picture books were left. They changed the order the next year and their swap went much better.
If you have any questions, please let me know. I hope you decide to have a book swap and that it is fun for you and your students.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Monday, October 29, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012
Library Displays
Greetings!
Do you pull out books for displays in your classroom or your library? If you don’t, why not? It is a great way to get some books noticed. You can use the top of the shelves, a table, a desk, a box, a bathtub, or anything that will hold some books. Use a crate or bookends to help books stand upright.
We have a display in our library right now on bears. We have informational books and stories about bears from all sections of the library. We have stuffed bears on the tables and shelves to supplement the display. It has been great and the children are enjoying the books.
We used a Paddington Bear and a Smokey bear along with a Winnie the Pooh to bring attention to stories about each of them.
The center of the table has the tallest books. You can also cover a box with a tablecloth and put books on the box to give them height.
This swing has been in the library for years.
We have a panda lover on our team and a part of her collection is prominently displayed. A number of our panda books were near this, but were promptly checked out.
The child-sized chair was donated to our library a couple of years ago and all ages love to sit in it.
We have another display on survival and have pulled both stories and information for this, as well.
I bought a number of these Lucite signs at Staples and a piece of regular paper fits in there well. We put a piece of construction paper in to give some color and draw attention to the display.
This set of books called “Survive Alive” by Neil Champion is a great addition to your library. There are three more in the series that aren’t shown in the picture: Finding Food and Water, In An Emergency, and Tools and Crafts.
Look at the calendar for ideas for displays. Pull books for the major holidays and the minor ones as well. When National Popcorn Day (January 19) comes around, pull books on corn, popcorn, and cookbooks with popcorn recipes in it. Make bookmarks with a flavored popcorn recipe on it for the students to take home. If you google “national popcorn day”, you will also find fun activities to do. You can find oodles of ideas on the internet.
Don’t forget school subjects, too. What are you teaching that can be supplemented from the library? If you are a classroom teacher, check out books for a display in your classroom.
Display books by color or size. Check with your students for props to borrow to enhance the displays. Pick and choose the displays you want to do. Have students help hunt for books that fit the theme of the display. If they find the books, they might also actually read them. Have a goal for one display a month and have the display last for a week or two unless it is so popular you decide to keep it up. No display in between will also promote interest when a new display goes up.
I hope these ideas have spurred your interest in putting up some displays in your school. Send ideas and pictures so I can see what talented readers I have.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Do you pull out books for displays in your classroom or your library? If you don’t, why not? It is a great way to get some books noticed. You can use the top of the shelves, a table, a desk, a box, a bathtub, or anything that will hold some books. Use a crate or bookends to help books stand upright.
We have a display in our library right now on bears. We have informational books and stories about bears from all sections of the library. We have stuffed bears on the tables and shelves to supplement the display. It has been great and the children are enjoying the books.
We used a Paddington Bear and a Smokey bear along with a Winnie the Pooh to bring attention to stories about each of them.
The center of the table has the tallest books. You can also cover a box with a tablecloth and put books on the box to give them height.
This swing has been in the library for years.
We have a panda lover on our team and a part of her collection is prominently displayed. A number of our panda books were near this, but were promptly checked out.
The child-sized chair was donated to our library a couple of years ago and all ages love to sit in it.
We have another display on survival and have pulled both stories and information for this, as well.
I bought a number of these Lucite signs at Staples and a piece of regular paper fits in there well. We put a piece of construction paper in to give some color and draw attention to the display.
This set of books called “Survive Alive” by Neil Champion is a great addition to your library. There are three more in the series that aren’t shown in the picture: Finding Food and Water, In An Emergency, and Tools and Crafts.
Look at the calendar for ideas for displays. Pull books for the major holidays and the minor ones as well. When National Popcorn Day (January 19) comes around, pull books on corn, popcorn, and cookbooks with popcorn recipes in it. Make bookmarks with a flavored popcorn recipe on it for the students to take home. If you google “national popcorn day”, you will also find fun activities to do. You can find oodles of ideas on the internet.
Don’t forget school subjects, too. What are you teaching that can be supplemented from the library? If you are a classroom teacher, check out books for a display in your classroom.
Display books by color or size. Check with your students for props to borrow to enhance the displays. Pick and choose the displays you want to do. Have students help hunt for books that fit the theme of the display. If they find the books, they might also actually read them. Have a goal for one display a month and have the display last for a week or two unless it is so popular you decide to keep it up. No display in between will also promote interest when a new display goes up.
I hope these ideas have spurred your interest in putting up some displays in your school. Send ideas and pictures so I can see what talented readers I have.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Read Alouds, part 3
Greetings,
I will continue my previous two posts regarding books to read aloud.
Suzy Kline writes some great stories. She was a third grade teacher and her students were trying to find chapter books that they could read on their own. She started writing a series about Horrible Harry geared for readers in about second grade. But that’s not the series I want to tell you about. Herbie Jones is a third grader and the funniest things happen to him. Kids love to hear about his adventures. Try the one where he is invited to Annabelle’s birthday party and takes a can of salmon as a gift. Then make sure you have others in your library in the series including Herbie Jones and the Class Gift, and Herbie Jones and Hamburger Head.
You probably know Beverly Cleary best for her books about Ramona Quimby. All of Beverly Cleary’s books are great read alouds, but she has other books that are maybe not as well known. Dear Mr. Henshaw is a favorite of mine and I love this gentle story told in letter/diary format. Leigh writes to an author as a second grader and again in third and fourth grades. When Leigh is in sixth grade, his parents divorce, he and his mother move, and Leigh ends up writing a diary and we learn how he adjusts to his new life and how he comes to terms with his absent father. There is a sequel to this story also called Strider.
You may know Robert McCloskey for his famous book, Make Way for Ducklings. This man has a tremendous sense of humor which shows up in his books. Take Homer Price – extra ordinary things just seem to happen to an ordinary boy who has a pet skunk and an uncle who owns the town’s donut machine. After this book, you can read more stories about Homer Price in Centerburg Tales. These two books are a collection of stories. Each story is fairly long and may need two or even three days for reading each story.
If you like Homer Price, you may also like the set of books by Bertrand R. Brinley called The Mad Scientists Club. A group of boys aged 12 – 15 call themselves the Mad Scientists Club. They hatch up some wild plans among themselves and try to hatch a dinosaur egg, build a sea monster on their canoe that fools the people across the lake, find something hidden inside the cannon on the town square, and much more. Granted, the stories were written in the 1960s, and the technology is old fashioned, but the stories are still fun to read. I hope some of you know about these books, but I would guess that most of you have not. There are three other books in the series. The New Adventures of The Mad Scientists Club, The Big Kerplop, and The Big Chunk of Ice. Enjoy.
It looks like this week has a little theme of books that are old fashioned. One of my very favorites is Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Elizabeth is being raised by an overprotective aunt who has very specific ideas on child raising. Circumstances arise that send Elizabeth to live on a farm with other relatives who call her Betsy instead of Elizabeth. Betsy learns to be independent and to think for herself and I cheer for her as she begins to grow up. One thing I love about this book is that Elizabeth is first referred to as Elizabeth, and at some point in the story, she is then called Betsy rather than Elizabeth. Elizabeth is the frightened dependant child, and as she becomes more independent, her personality and name changes. This would be a great book to read aloud and ask the children about the name change. The book is in print, but I got it free on my Kindle.
Robert Burch wrote a book called Ida Early Comes Over the Mountain, a story about a woman who cares for the children in a family. The children’s mother had died and a stern aunt is caring for the family. Ida is tall and not very attractive, but the children grow to love her and the fun she brings with her. A sequel to this book is Christmas With Ida Early.
If you like Ida Early, you will probably like The Year of Miss Agnes, too. A small school in Alaska has a hard time keeping teachers. Life is very hard and no one seems to want to stay around. When Miss Agnes comes along, the children expect she will be the same as the others and leave as soon as she can, but Miss Agnes surprises them all. She throws away old textbooks (Yea!) and reads exciting books to them. The children start to enjoy their lessons and are learning, but keep wondering if Miss Agnes will leave or stay.
Ruth Redding Brand loves to write Bible stories for children. Charles Mills loves to write for children. Together they have written a series of books that your children will love. Call them either Amazing Stories from the Bible or the Professor Appleby and Maggie B tapes series; it doesn’t matter. They are fun and the students will beg for more. Other titles are Miracle Stories from the Bible, Heroic Stories from the Bible, Adventure Stories from the Bible, Mysterious Stories from the Bible, and Miracle Stories from the Bible. If you are going to read these aloud, it would be helpful to read them in order.
I hope you have enjoyed these read aloud ideas. Maybe we’ll do some more later in the year.
Have a great week,
Audrey
I will continue my previous two posts regarding books to read aloud.
Suzy Kline writes some great stories. She was a third grade teacher and her students were trying to find chapter books that they could read on their own. She started writing a series about Horrible Harry geared for readers in about second grade. But that’s not the series I want to tell you about. Herbie Jones is a third grader and the funniest things happen to him. Kids love to hear about his adventures. Try the one where he is invited to Annabelle’s birthday party and takes a can of salmon as a gift. Then make sure you have others in your library in the series including Herbie Jones and the Class Gift, and Herbie Jones and Hamburger Head.
You probably know Beverly Cleary best for her books about Ramona Quimby. All of Beverly Cleary’s books are great read alouds, but she has other books that are maybe not as well known. Dear Mr. Henshaw is a favorite of mine and I love this gentle story told in letter/diary format. Leigh writes to an author as a second grader and again in third and fourth grades. When Leigh is in sixth grade, his parents divorce, he and his mother move, and Leigh ends up writing a diary and we learn how he adjusts to his new life and how he comes to terms with his absent father. There is a sequel to this story also called Strider.
You may know Robert McCloskey for his famous book, Make Way for Ducklings. This man has a tremendous sense of humor which shows up in his books. Take Homer Price – extra ordinary things just seem to happen to an ordinary boy who has a pet skunk and an uncle who owns the town’s donut machine. After this book, you can read more stories about Homer Price in Centerburg Tales. These two books are a collection of stories. Each story is fairly long and may need two or even three days for reading each story.
If you like Homer Price, you may also like the set of books by Bertrand R. Brinley called The Mad Scientists Club. A group of boys aged 12 – 15 call themselves the Mad Scientists Club. They hatch up some wild plans among themselves and try to hatch a dinosaur egg, build a sea monster on their canoe that fools the people across the lake, find something hidden inside the cannon on the town square, and much more. Granted, the stories were written in the 1960s, and the technology is old fashioned, but the stories are still fun to read. I hope some of you know about these books, but I would guess that most of you have not. There are three other books in the series. The New Adventures of The Mad Scientists Club, The Big Kerplop, and The Big Chunk of Ice. Enjoy.
It looks like this week has a little theme of books that are old fashioned. One of my very favorites is Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Elizabeth is being raised by an overprotective aunt who has very specific ideas on child raising. Circumstances arise that send Elizabeth to live on a farm with other relatives who call her Betsy instead of Elizabeth. Betsy learns to be independent and to think for herself and I cheer for her as she begins to grow up. One thing I love about this book is that Elizabeth is first referred to as Elizabeth, and at some point in the story, she is then called Betsy rather than Elizabeth. Elizabeth is the frightened dependant child, and as she becomes more independent, her personality and name changes. This would be a great book to read aloud and ask the children about the name change. The book is in print, but I got it free on my Kindle.
Robert Burch wrote a book called Ida Early Comes Over the Mountain, a story about a woman who cares for the children in a family. The children’s mother had died and a stern aunt is caring for the family. Ida is tall and not very attractive, but the children grow to love her and the fun she brings with her. A sequel to this book is Christmas With Ida Early.
If you like Ida Early, you will probably like The Year of Miss Agnes, too. A small school in Alaska has a hard time keeping teachers. Life is very hard and no one seems to want to stay around. When Miss Agnes comes along, the children expect she will be the same as the others and leave as soon as she can, but Miss Agnes surprises them all. She throws away old textbooks (Yea!) and reads exciting books to them. The children start to enjoy their lessons and are learning, but keep wondering if Miss Agnes will leave or stay.
Ruth Redding Brand loves to write Bible stories for children. Charles Mills loves to write for children. Together they have written a series of books that your children will love. Call them either Amazing Stories from the Bible or the Professor Appleby and Maggie B tapes series; it doesn’t matter. They are fun and the students will beg for more. Other titles are Miracle Stories from the Bible, Heroic Stories from the Bible, Adventure Stories from the Bible, Mysterious Stories from the Bible, and Miracle Stories from the Bible. If you are going to read these aloud, it would be helpful to read them in order.
I hope you have enjoyed these read aloud ideas. Maybe we’ll do some more later in the year.
Have a great week,
Audrey
Monday, October 8, 2012
Read Alouds, Part 2
Greetings,
I got responses from a few of you enjoying the read alouds I told about last week. Since I didn’t nearly finish my own favorites, I will again continue that same thread. But first . . .
Karen wrote that she likes to read Secret of the Cave by Maxwell. Most of you probably know that this is by an Adventist author and that there is a DVD movie of the book that was made by students at Southern Adventist University a few years ago. Note: I bought the DVD and began to show it to my library club members 15 minutes at a time during our lunch time. I told them that we were previewing it to see what ages it would be best for. My library club members are usually in 5th grade or above. After the first ‘episode’ one girl asked if she had to watch the rest because it was so scary. I didn’t think it was scary, but you can judge for yourself.
If you have students who want to read an adventure book, or an exciting story, just send them to Will Hobbs. He writes adventure stories and I have never seen any language issues in his books. Many of his books are historical fiction, but all are good reads. Jason’s Gold is a survival story about a young man who stows away to find gold in Alaska and gets a little help from a guy named Jack London. I happened upon this book in our local public library a number of years ago, read it, then went back to the library and proceeded to read every Will Hobbs book they had. Then I ordered a bunch for our school library.
Continuing the adventure theme we go to Stone Fox by John R. Gardiner. Take a young boy, money problems, a sled dog race and you are set for adventure. This book is also only 96 pages so is not as intimidating. It would be a good book to read before the beginning of the Iditarod, and then follow the race via the internet. Talk about bringing the book to life! There is also a movie of the book for those who are interested.
Since we are on an adventure theme, don’t forget Swift Arrow by Josephine Cunnington Edwards. This is an old favorite of many of us. If you haven’t pulled it out in a while, go find it and start reading it to the students. Then, when you have finished, pull out Spotted Boy and the Comanches by Mabel Earp Cason. Both of these books are about white boys taken by Indians and how they were able to make their way home again. As a child, I used to imagine what it would be like to be captured by Indians.
I now see that I have a theme of historical adventure and they are all about boys. So balance that out a little by including Caddie Woodlawn, a feisty redhaired girl back at the turn of the century. She makes friends with the Indians and has other adventures that are really interesting. Carol Ryrie Brink writes this true story about her grandmother who was the real Caddie Woodlawn. If you enjoy this book, try the second one called Magical Melons. (Spoiler alert: The watermelons had been hidden in sawdust to be saved for later and not knowing this, the children happened to discover them and decided it must be magic. There are no magical or supernatural things in these books.)
One more adventure story to read aloud is The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare. Thirteen-year-old Matt and his father journey to their claim and begin to build a cabin. Father leaves Matt to finish the cabin and guard it while he returns to bring back the rest of the family. As problems arise, Matt learns some much needed survival skills from the Beaver clan of Indians nearby. Matt teaches Attean to read and Attean teaches Matt much more. Elizabeth George Speare only wrote four books, but those four are stellar. The other three are The Witch of Blackbird Pond (NOT about a witch and in my top ten children's books of all time),Calico Captive (about a girl captured by Indians), and The Bronze Bow (a young man bent on revenge in Roman times, and learns some lessons about love and forgiveness from the carpenter Jesus of Nazareth.)
Have a great week!
Audrey
I got responses from a few of you enjoying the read alouds I told about last week. Since I didn’t nearly finish my own favorites, I will again continue that same thread. But first . . .
Karen wrote that she likes to read Secret of the Cave by Maxwell. Most of you probably know that this is by an Adventist author and that there is a DVD movie of the book that was made by students at Southern Adventist University a few years ago. Note: I bought the DVD and began to show it to my library club members 15 minutes at a time during our lunch time. I told them that we were previewing it to see what ages it would be best for. My library club members are usually in 5th grade or above. After the first ‘episode’ one girl asked if she had to watch the rest because it was so scary. I didn’t think it was scary, but you can judge for yourself.
If you have students who want to read an adventure book, or an exciting story, just send them to Will Hobbs. He writes adventure stories and I have never seen any language issues in his books. Many of his books are historical fiction, but all are good reads. Jason’s Gold is a survival story about a young man who stows away to find gold in Alaska and gets a little help from a guy named Jack London. I happened upon this book in our local public library a number of years ago, read it, then went back to the library and proceeded to read every Will Hobbs book they had. Then I ordered a bunch for our school library.
Continuing the adventure theme we go to Stone Fox by John R. Gardiner. Take a young boy, money problems, a sled dog race and you are set for adventure. This book is also only 96 pages so is not as intimidating. It would be a good book to read before the beginning of the Iditarod, and then follow the race via the internet. Talk about bringing the book to life! There is also a movie of the book for those who are interested.
Since we are on an adventure theme, don’t forget Swift Arrow by Josephine Cunnington Edwards. This is an old favorite of many of us. If you haven’t pulled it out in a while, go find it and start reading it to the students. Then, when you have finished, pull out Spotted Boy and the Comanches by Mabel Earp Cason. Both of these books are about white boys taken by Indians and how they were able to make their way home again. As a child, I used to imagine what it would be like to be captured by Indians.
I now see that I have a theme of historical adventure and they are all about boys. So balance that out a little by including Caddie Woodlawn, a feisty redhaired girl back at the turn of the century. She makes friends with the Indians and has other adventures that are really interesting. Carol Ryrie Brink writes this true story about her grandmother who was the real Caddie Woodlawn. If you enjoy this book, try the second one called Magical Melons. (Spoiler alert: The watermelons had been hidden in sawdust to be saved for later and not knowing this, the children happened to discover them and decided it must be magic. There are no magical or supernatural things in these books.)
One more adventure story to read aloud is The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare. Thirteen-year-old Matt and his father journey to their claim and begin to build a cabin. Father leaves Matt to finish the cabin and guard it while he returns to bring back the rest of the family. As problems arise, Matt learns some much needed survival skills from the Beaver clan of Indians nearby. Matt teaches Attean to read and Attean teaches Matt much more. Elizabeth George Speare only wrote four books, but those four are stellar. The other three are The Witch of Blackbird Pond (NOT about a witch and in my top ten children's books of all time),Calico Captive (about a girl captured by Indians), and The Bronze Bow (a young man bent on revenge in Roman times, and learns some lessons about love and forgiveness from the carpenter Jesus of Nazareth.)
Have a great week!
Audrey
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