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

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

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

E-Reader Policy

Greetings!

Last week I talked about the importance of reading aloud. I got a response from a teacher telling me about the books she enjoys reading aloud to her students and hoping other teachers will share their favorites, as well. So, you are invited to send a quick email to me listing books that you love reading aloud. I will share the list in the near future and we can all enjoy them and maybe even find some new favorites.

This week I want to talk about e-books and e-readers in the school. I know that many of your schools do not allow Kindles or Nooks at school. However, many of you do allow these and those that don’t allow them YET, may find that you will need to do so in the next year or two. The e-reader is here to stay. That being said – you may consider having a contract or policy for the e-reader. I hope you have a Computer User Agreement for the computer use in your school. (If not, then that is another post.) The e-reader contract would be similar. In your e-Book User Agreement here are some things to consider including. I took the following items from http://www.pointpleasant.k12.nj.us/Forms/Policy2361_eReaderAgreement.pdf

1. All e-readers must be labeled with the student’s first and last name.
2. Each student is responsible for his or her own e-reader and is strongly cautioned not to lend it to another student while in school.
3. E-readers can be used in class only when the teacher gives the student permission. If a student is using an e-reader at an inappropriate time, the teacher may revoke student permission to use the e-reader during that class.
4. E-readers are to be used for reading and teacher-approved school work only. Any student found to be using his/her e-reader for unapproved activity or Internet access during school hours will lose his/her privileges.
5. E-readers may NOT be used for audio books, music, or movies in school.
6. The privilege to use an e-reader can be revoked at any time.

I googled e-reader user agreements and was quite surprised at some of the restrictions that public schools and other church schools put on the e-readers that are brought to school. Some stated that ALL material downloaded on the e-reader must be appropriate for the school. I was surprised at this, but it isn’t a bad idea. Others said that if students bring an e-reader to school a teacher may at any time look at the material downloaded to make sure that nothing is inappropriate. Others said that while the e-reader is at school, the wireless must be disabled. The list goes on. Do a search for e-reader agreements and see what you can learn.

I am now going to admit that my school does not yet have a policy or e-reader agreement. I have mentioned to the administration that this may be something that we need to do, and we are likely to either have a policy or consider a policy at some point this year. When we have a policy, I will certainly share ours with you. I just feel like it is good to be prepared for the coming of the e-reader rather than have to hustle to catch up.

If your school allows e-readers, I would urge you to consider a policy before any problems arise. If you are considering allowing them, then a policy ahead of time would certainly be appropriate.

I hope you have a great week. Don’t forget to send me ideas for good read alouds.

Audrey

Reading Aloud is Important

Greetings!

I certainly hope you are reading aloud to your students. It is my belief that we should read aloud to students of ALL ages. Yes, I know that older students can read for themselves and you high school teachers or librarians probably don’t read aloud to them. Still, I think you should. Here are my reasons.

1. Everyone enjoys a good story and we should not leave anyone out. I know that I listen to a preacher better if the sermon is illustrated with stories.

2. Speaking of listening, many children today need to improve listening skills and stories are one way to help improve that skill.

3. Reading aloud and sharing books models how important this skill is. When I read a book to a group, the book I read is the exact book that students ask for over and over. Years ago I read a story called “Mailing May” (see note below) to a group of 1st and 2nd graders. One little girl checked the book out repeatedly for years. She graduated last year, but that book was special to her for many years.

You may not realize what kind of power you have at your fingertips. You can influence the reading material of your students. There is such a plethora of reading material and much of it is just trash. If we can find good wholesome books for our kids to read, what a blessing it would be.

I hope you have a great week.
Audrey

Note: Mailing May by Michael O. Tunnell, Illustrated by Ted Rand. Greenwillow Books, 1997.
Summary: May is a small child who wants to go visit her grandmother across the Idaho mountains, but the family does not have enough money to pay the $1.55 fare. May tries to earn money, but she is just too young. However, Ma and Pa come up with a plan. Ma’s cousin Leonard is working on the mail train from Grangeville to Lewiston and May is ‘mailed’ to her grandmother. What is the best thing about this book is that the story is true. You can read the whole story in the back of the book.

Check out other books by Michael O, Tunnell if you like this one.

Greetings!
Since the school year has just started, you have money that needs to be spent on your school library. I’ll be happy to help you spend this. 

Throughout the school year I will give you ideas for books that you may either need or want for your library. This week I have some great ones for you.
If your library is like many libraries, you need to update your astronomy section.

Here is a great one titled A Black Hole is Not a Hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano published by Charlesbridge. She does a great job of explaining what a black hole really is. The book is just about right for elementary libraries. Students from middle to upper grades will all be able to read and learn from it. Teachers can use it as a great supplemental resource for science, too.

Since election time is right around the corner, putting out some books about elections, governments, and presidents will help stimulate some interest in the subject. Here is a set of books from Searchlight Books published by Lerner about Judges and Courts, The Congress, and The President, Vice President, and Cabinet. These are appropriate for primary and middle grades.

I found a set of books that address certain issues that come up at school such as being kind and honest with others. This set is called Positive Steps published by Smart Apple Media and each book in the set addresses a particular kind of behavior. The titles shown are Dealing with Differences, Being Honest, Caring for Others, and Dealing with Bullying.

If you have horse lovers in your school like I have at mine, you can’t have enough horse books. Kingfisher Riding Club is a reputable source for all things horse and this one about the different breeds from around the world is really great. I learned that there are hot-blooded, warm-blooded, and cold-blooded horses. Who knew?! Read Horse and Pony Breeds by Sandy Ransford to learn more.

Last week I answered a question about outdated textbooks and asked for any suggestions from you regarding them. Jennifer H. responded with some great options. She said that older math and reading textbooks can be used as a resource for extra practice. You can sell them at yard sales. Student missionaries who will be teaching may welcome them. Contact the WWU student missions to see if there is any interest for them. Thanks, Jennifer, for your great ideas.

I hope you got some good ideas for books.

Have a great week.
Audrey

Outdated Textbooks

I got an email from a teacher wondering what I tell people to do with outdated textbooks. She wondered what the best way is to take care of them and wondered if there was a place that needed them.


This is a great question. I am not sure what people do with them actually. I know that most schools simply do not have the storage space to keep them. I would say that if they are in poor condition, to recycle them if possible. If they are in good condition, I would expect that there are schools somewhere that could use them. I don’t know where to find these schools, but I think that the conference office may know more about this than I do.


If the old books are from the old reading series, I would recommend keeping a set or two of each level in the library as a library book. It may be that you have students who need more reading practice and having a book that is on his or her level to read will really help. This is especially true for the younger grades. If you have any of the old Dick and Jane books or even the really old Alice and Jerry books, you have a treasure. Keep them in the library and let students check them out to read.


Now I will turn the tables on to my readers. What do YOU recommend schools do with outdated textbooks? I’ll compile ideas and let you know what others suggest.


I hope you have a great week and a Happy New School Year!
Audrey