Periodicals

Hello,

Do you receive magazine for your school library? Many times a magazine is something that our reluctant readers will grab and look through or read rather than a book. Over the years I have eliminated a few from my list plus others that have gone out of print. For the most part, I suggest that you subscribe to magazines that supplement your curriculum or what is important at your school. Our school has a junior high ski program, so we subscribe to Ski.

I am often asked what magazines I subscribe to or what a small school should subscribe to. I subscribe to a number of publications put out by the Cricket Group. These usually have one theme per issue and are wonderful for research purposes. We treat them like books and do not weed them out after a few years. The cost is fairly high for each, but if you think of each issue as a $3.75 book, it isn’t too bad after all. Most of these are not the kind of magazine that you will toss after a few years because it is outdated. Each subscription is $33.95 for 9 issues a year.

Cricket Group
Ask – 6 – 10 years – Scientific articles and activities
Cobblestone – 9 – 14 years – American history
Dig into History – 9 – 14 years – Archaelogy and the ancient world
Faces– 9 – 14 years – In-depth look at a country, culture, or idea
Muse– 9 – 14 years – Science and arts

If you could only get one subscription, I would suggest you choose Cobblestone. If you were to add another, I would add Faces. These two magazines will help supplement the study of American history and world cultures for your students in grades 5 – 8. We have our copies of Cobblestone and Faces since each magazine was introduced and have not had any duplicates. Next I would add Muse to the list to support your science curriculum. If you just got these three, you would have spend $100.00 and are now adding what you could consider ‘short books’ to the library each year.

Other magazines that are popular here are:
American Girl
High Five (from Highlights magazine)
Ingredient (a magazine for kids on healthy food and cooking)
Motocross Action
Mountain Bike Action
National Geographic Kids
Popular Science
Radio Control Car Action
Ranger Rick
Science World (a Scholastic classroom magazine)
Sports Illustrated for Kids.

I know that your budget probably won’t support all of these magazines. My suggestion is to subscribe to three to five of your choice through the school and then check with your constituency to see if they can help with others. You may find that families might already subscribe to American Girl, Ranger Rick, or Sports Illustrated for Kids, or National Geographic or National Geographic for Kids and might be willing to donate them after they are through.

Each time you have conferences, you might consider putting your wish list on your door for parents to see. Years ago at Keene Adventist Elementary School, we were given large yellow stars by our Home and School committee. On each star we were encouraged to put an item that we either needed or wished we could have. My teaching neighbor decided to go big and put ‘overhead projector’ on one star and ‘new desk for teacher’ on another. She also filled out the rest of her stars with smaller items she wanted. She actually got a ‘new’ desk from a parent who was remodeling an office area and someone else bought her the overhead projector. This never happened to me, but the point is that you never know. Put your wish list on stars on your door and see what happens.

I didn’t put any religious magazines on here, but there are very few that are for kids. Most of our students receive Guide, Primary Treasure, or Our Little Friend at church, but it might be that the Sabbath School departments will donate any leftovers to you to keep in the library.
I hope you have found some information that is helpful to you in this post.

Have a great week.

Audrey

Currently Reading:
The Head of Kay’s by P. G. Wodehouse
In a French Kitchen by Susan Herrmann Loomis
The Litigators by John Grisham
Lizzie and the Lost Baby by Cheryl Blackford
The Gold Shoe by Grace Livingston Hill