Hobbies and Activities

Greetings!

If you are like me, you have some pretty intelligent students in your school. Their interests run the gamut of activities, sports, and hobbies. If you don’t have books in your library to feed their interests, then why not? This is a great way to know what books and materials to add to your library knowing that they will be used.

Most kids I know love building a fort or hide-out. Check out the books by David Stiles. Even if students don’t actually build them, these are great fun to dream about.

Does your Pathfinder group or another group still build pinewood derby cars? I found a book about how to build one. Even if the students aren’t in Pathfinders, it still might be fun to build one of those little racing cars.

What kid does not like secret codes? Let them learn about codes and ciphers from a book in the library.

One of our teachers is a talented artist and his students love to check out the drawing books. These can be used in all grade levels, too.

Think about model trains, model airplanes, boats, and cars. If you have students that are interested in these things, put books and magazines in your library to draw them in. What about Legos? There are some great Lego books on building things with Legos.

One of our teachers had a parent come and teach crocheting, so we stocked up on books about crocheting, knitting, quilting, weaving, beading, and sewing. I’m sure you can think of other crafts that you’d like to have represented in your library.

Don’t forget other sports and outdoor activities. We have a community park with BMX racing competitions so we have some books on BMX bikes in our library. We also have the BMX magazine in the library. Our junior high students go skiing every winter, so Ski is also another magazine we include in our library.

Ask your students what sports and hobbies they would like to see in the library. Let them be a part of the selection process and they will be much more likely to use the books and magazines you purchase. Let the student who helped choose the books be first to check them out.

Ask students to bring in some of their creations to be used in a display. Put the book beside the article they made or created. Or just make a great display of all your craft and activity books.

Enjoy your hobby section!
Have a great week!

Audrey