Hello,
Every now and then we find we must discard a much loved and much used book. We want another copy, but how can we find one? Very likely most of you know where and how to look for used books but I thought it might be helpful to have other sources available in case you need them.
My first go-to for used books is my local used bookstore. You just never know what you will find there. However, the owner is so busy, he is unable to keep an eye out for the copy I would like to have. If I can’t find it there, I either must keep coming back regularly or go elsewhere. It may be that you have a used bookstore and that person will watch for incoming titles that you want. If so, consider yourself very lucky.
I also go to Amazon.com. For just about every book listed there are used options. Sometimes the used options are much more expensive than the original. I just looked for a particular book that is out of print and saw that the used copy in ‘Good’ condition was $0.01 (plus the $4.99 shipping and handling charge), but a new copy was $59.00. The original price for the thin paperback book couldn’t have been more than $12.00.
If I am unsuccessful at Amazon (and it does happen), I next go to www.abebooks.com. Here I can search according to author, title, keyword, or ISBN. If I go to the advanced search options, I can also search by publisher, binding, choose a first edition, a signed copy, choose if I want a dust jacket or not, and choose by price. I have found some really great deals at this site.
Other online used book stores include www.Alabris.com, www.Powells.com, www.thriftbooks.com, www.bookfinder.com, and www.betterworldbooks.com.
Check multiple sources. You may not find what you want, but then again. . . you might find a sweet deal.
I hope you have a great week.
Audrey
Monday, April 24, 2017
Monday, April 17, 2017
Reading Without Walls
Hello,
I received an email a few weeks ago advertising a kit for a program called “Reading Without Walls”. Since it was free, I decided to just order it and see what it was all about. I just got my kit and when I opened it up, I found some nice little give-a-ways that go with the program.
The kit and the program are sponsored by the CBC – The Children’s Book Council. This program is actually a challenge for students to expand their reading horizons by reading outside their comfort zone. The students are encouraged to read a book about a character who doesn’t look or live like they do OR to read a book about a topic they don’t know much about OR to read a book in a format that they don’t normally read for fun.
My kit contains a booklet with other ideas, worksheets, a certificate, and some little give-a-ways such as buttons, bookmarks, and stickers. The website has some of those items available to print out.
This looks to me like a fun program. It is independent and participants only need to read one book. This program also challenges parents and teachers along with students to read something out of their comfort zone.
I was thinking of what I might do with this program. I read that the program runs in April, but since April is more than half over, I’m thinking about choosing another time period such as May or possibly doing this over summer vacation. I’ll advertise this in our school newsletter, promote it during library classes, and encourage our teachers to all participate along with the students. We have some homeschoolers who visit our library and I’ll encourage them to join with us in this. It’s so new to me, that I will need to mull this over and make some decisions.
If you need more information, the website is very helpful. http://www.cbcbooks.org/reading-without-walls/
Have a great week.
Audrey
I received an email a few weeks ago advertising a kit for a program called “Reading Without Walls”. Since it was free, I decided to just order it and see what it was all about. I just got my kit and when I opened it up, I found some nice little give-a-ways that go with the program.
The kit and the program are sponsored by the CBC – The Children’s Book Council. This program is actually a challenge for students to expand their reading horizons by reading outside their comfort zone. The students are encouraged to read a book about a character who doesn’t look or live like they do OR to read a book about a topic they don’t know much about OR to read a book in a format that they don’t normally read for fun.
My kit contains a booklet with other ideas, worksheets, a certificate, and some little give-a-ways such as buttons, bookmarks, and stickers. The website has some of those items available to print out.
This looks to me like a fun program. It is independent and participants only need to read one book. This program also challenges parents and teachers along with students to read something out of their comfort zone.
I was thinking of what I might do with this program. I read that the program runs in April, but since April is more than half over, I’m thinking about choosing another time period such as May or possibly doing this over summer vacation. I’ll advertise this in our school newsletter, promote it during library classes, and encourage our teachers to all participate along with the students. We have some homeschoolers who visit our library and I’ll encourage them to join with us in this. It’s so new to me, that I will need to mull this over and make some decisions.
If you need more information, the website is very helpful. http://www.cbcbooks.org/reading-without-walls/
Have a great week.
Audrey
Monday, April 10, 2017
Reading Cards, part 2
Hello,
Last week I told you about my Reading Cards and how I use them in library classes. This week I have a quick update on how the party went. I ended up with 52 children in the library for our celebration. Fortunately, the children are small enough that we were able to fit everyone in the space.
I show a short movie and I always choose one that is from a book. I want to entertain, but also focus on literature since they have been reading all along. I showed an episode of a series about Ramona Quimby that was aired in the early 1980s. (A previous librarian recorded these on VHS tapes for the library.)
I keep an eye out for short movies made from children’s literature. There are many full length movies, but those are more difficult to use at school simply because of time. One teacher I know used to play “The Secret Garden” in 15 – 20 minute segments daily for her children after they had finished listening to the story, but that doesn’t work for my particular situation.
One other thing I do for the children who complete their reading cards is to have a small snack for them. I bought popcorn and put it in small bags for each child one year and another year I bought goldfish crackers for them. Each year there was a mess on the carpet and I had to vacuum it up before the next class came in. So, this year I had treat bags for each student. Each treat bag had a small bag of goldfish crackers, plus some other small items that would be fun for the kids such as puzzles, pencils, and small toys from the Dollar Store or Oriental Trading. As they left the library, each student took one treat bag.
Last year I had a banner made that said “Library Celebration Today” and we hung that up on the wall outside the library so everyone who passed by would know that something special was happening inside that day.
I tweak this Reading Card program every year and would certainly like to hear any ideas you might have.
I hope you have a great week.
Audrey
Last week I told you about my Reading Cards and how I use them in library classes. This week I have a quick update on how the party went. I ended up with 52 children in the library for our celebration. Fortunately, the children are small enough that we were able to fit everyone in the space.
I show a short movie and I always choose one that is from a book. I want to entertain, but also focus on literature since they have been reading all along. I showed an episode of a series about Ramona Quimby that was aired in the early 1980s. (A previous librarian recorded these on VHS tapes for the library.)
I keep an eye out for short movies made from children’s literature. There are many full length movies, but those are more difficult to use at school simply because of time. One teacher I know used to play “The Secret Garden” in 15 – 20 minute segments daily for her children after they had finished listening to the story, but that doesn’t work for my particular situation.
One other thing I do for the children who complete their reading cards is to have a small snack for them. I bought popcorn and put it in small bags for each child one year and another year I bought goldfish crackers for them. Each year there was a mess on the carpet and I had to vacuum it up before the next class came in. So, this year I had treat bags for each student. Each treat bag had a small bag of goldfish crackers, plus some other small items that would be fun for the kids such as puzzles, pencils, and small toys from the Dollar Store or Oriental Trading. As they left the library, each student took one treat bag.
Last year I had a banner made that said “Library Celebration Today” and we hung that up on the wall outside the library so everyone who passed by would know that something special was happening inside that day.
I tweak this Reading Card program every year and would certainly like to hear any ideas you might have.
I hope you have a great week.
Audrey
Monday, April 3, 2017
Reading Cards
Hello,
This week is a special week for a particular group in the library. I realized that I might not have told you about this particular program I do with 3rd and 4th graders. I call it “Reading Cards”.
When I was young, I was a voracious reader. I read nearly everything I could get my hands on – except nonfiction. I had decided that it was automatically boring and just never ventured to that area of the library. Of course, I know better, but I saw many students doing the same thing that I had done and wanted them to know that there are lots of really interesting books in the nonfiction section too.
I looked through my personal teacher library and found some ideas that I then adapted to fit what I needed. I made a reading card. The card has also evolved over the years and is two-sided. One side has ten sections; one for each of the Dewey hundreds. As students read a book from the Dewey hundred, they report in some way (more about this below) and the title of the book is written down, and they continue on until that side is completed. The other side has 14 sections with different kinds of books to read. Some of the sections include “A Book with a picture of a horse on the cover”, “An old, battered book”, “A Short Chapter Book”, “A New book published since 2012”, “An Award Winner”, “A Free Choice book”, and more.
This card is tailored to my particular library. I have some that wouldn’t be understood by others such as “A Green Dot Book”. The picture books are organized into a basic Dewey arrangement and the science and nature books have green dots on the spines. This year I had them read a green dot book to a younger child AND the child could not be in their class. Our third and fourth graders all have times they read with a Kindergarten class or a 1st and 2nd grade class, so it isn’t that difficult to do. Many also have younger siblings they can read to, as well.
Lots of students love to ‘read’ Guinness World Records. However, I have made it clear that the books they choose must be read all the way through. The world record books are just too much for them to read everything. Other books such as “Where’s Waldo?” or “I Spy” aren’t books to read, either, so I have a section for a “Just Looking Book”. Any book they want to check out and just look through without the stress of reading the whole book would fit this category. Other kinds of books in the category would be thick science books, books above their reading level, Lego books, maps, charts, graphs, etc. You get the idea.
This year I also added a Bible Story ‘story’. They read one story from the blue The Bible Story set and give the title of the story they read and the volume it came from. Each story is about three pages long and is not intimidating. Other ideas for sections I have used in the past include a joke book, a magazine, a book with a picture of a cat on it (I change the animal each year), a book of the Bible, a chapter book with fewer than 100 pages.
As each side of the reading card is completed, I let the students choose a small stuffed animal from my stash. (Check out Oriental Trading for these.) In April, I have a celebration party for those who have completed both sides of their reading card. These lucky students get to come to the library for a party. I show a short (30 minute) movie and have given them a small snack such as popcorn or goldfish crackers to eat during the movie. The students who did not complete their card stay in their classroom.
I know it seems like a lot of books to read, but we start at the beginning of school and end in April. This is seven months plus a little. I also help students locate shorter books in the
Dewey section since the idea is to read something from every section, so I don’t worry about reading levels. They get plenty of books on their level in other ways.
Each teacher has a binder I made for them with a card for each student in their classroom. I also have a large binder with a card for each student in it. As each student completes a side, I make a big deal of it and they choose their prize with the other students there. This usually encourages the other students to keep working on their reading card. The teachers bring their binders to library and I copy down the information into my book. I tell the children that MY book is the one that counts. The reason is that sometimes a volunteer parent will put a title in a section that it doesn’t fit. One example is when the parent wrote a science type of a title such as “Dwarf Planets” (500s) in the section for Bible stories (200s). I try to find another place for the science title and quietly tell the student that they still need a book from the 200s.
Once I had a student fill out his Dewey side with just any book he read. We explained that only the teacher or classroom aide was supposed to write in the titles, and that he needed to read certain books for each section. I started him on a new card and we wrote in titles that he had read putting them in their correct places.
Students report in a variety of ways. There is a written report form they can fill out, but most of them tell their teachers or a volunteer aide in the classroom enough about the book so we know they have actually read it. Sometimes I can listen to them tell about a book, but most of the time I am helping others locate books. Occasionally, a teacher has a class set of books that all the students have read, so we write that book down for each student.
If I were doing this in a small school, I would use the same basic card and have the students read the same categories of books but on their own reading level. I would also have the party after everyone had completed their cards.
I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about my reading card program.
Have a great week.
Audrey
This week is a special week for a particular group in the library. I realized that I might not have told you about this particular program I do with 3rd and 4th graders. I call it “Reading Cards”.
When I was young, I was a voracious reader. I read nearly everything I could get my hands on – except nonfiction. I had decided that it was automatically boring and just never ventured to that area of the library. Of course, I know better, but I saw many students doing the same thing that I had done and wanted them to know that there are lots of really interesting books in the nonfiction section too.
I looked through my personal teacher library and found some ideas that I then adapted to fit what I needed. I made a reading card. The card has also evolved over the years and is two-sided. One side has ten sections; one for each of the Dewey hundreds. As students read a book from the Dewey hundred, they report in some way (more about this below) and the title of the book is written down, and they continue on until that side is completed. The other side has 14 sections with different kinds of books to read. Some of the sections include “A Book with a picture of a horse on the cover”, “An old, battered book”, “A Short Chapter Book”, “A New book published since 2012”, “An Award Winner”, “A Free Choice book”, and more.
This card is tailored to my particular library. I have some that wouldn’t be understood by others such as “A Green Dot Book”. The picture books are organized into a basic Dewey arrangement and the science and nature books have green dots on the spines. This year I had them read a green dot book to a younger child AND the child could not be in their class. Our third and fourth graders all have times they read with a Kindergarten class or a 1st and 2nd grade class, so it isn’t that difficult to do. Many also have younger siblings they can read to, as well.
Lots of students love to ‘read’ Guinness World Records. However, I have made it clear that the books they choose must be read all the way through. The world record books are just too much for them to read everything. Other books such as “Where’s Waldo?” or “I Spy” aren’t books to read, either, so I have a section for a “Just Looking Book”. Any book they want to check out and just look through without the stress of reading the whole book would fit this category. Other kinds of books in the category would be thick science books, books above their reading level, Lego books, maps, charts, graphs, etc. You get the idea.
This year I also added a Bible Story ‘story’. They read one story from the blue The Bible Story set and give the title of the story they read and the volume it came from. Each story is about three pages long and is not intimidating. Other ideas for sections I have used in the past include a joke book, a magazine, a book with a picture of a cat on it (I change the animal each year), a book of the Bible, a chapter book with fewer than 100 pages.
As each side of the reading card is completed, I let the students choose a small stuffed animal from my stash. (Check out Oriental Trading for these.) In April, I have a celebration party for those who have completed both sides of their reading card. These lucky students get to come to the library for a party. I show a short (30 minute) movie and have given them a small snack such as popcorn or goldfish crackers to eat during the movie. The students who did not complete their card stay in their classroom.
I know it seems like a lot of books to read, but we start at the beginning of school and end in April. This is seven months plus a little. I also help students locate shorter books in the
Dewey section since the idea is to read something from every section, so I don’t worry about reading levels. They get plenty of books on their level in other ways.
Each teacher has a binder I made for them with a card for each student in their classroom. I also have a large binder with a card for each student in it. As each student completes a side, I make a big deal of it and they choose their prize with the other students there. This usually encourages the other students to keep working on their reading card. The teachers bring their binders to library and I copy down the information into my book. I tell the children that MY book is the one that counts. The reason is that sometimes a volunteer parent will put a title in a section that it doesn’t fit. One example is when the parent wrote a science type of a title such as “Dwarf Planets” (500s) in the section for Bible stories (200s). I try to find another place for the science title and quietly tell the student that they still need a book from the 200s.
Once I had a student fill out his Dewey side with just any book he read. We explained that only the teacher or classroom aide was supposed to write in the titles, and that he needed to read certain books for each section. I started him on a new card and we wrote in titles that he had read putting them in their correct places.
Students report in a variety of ways. There is a written report form they can fill out, but most of them tell their teachers or a volunteer aide in the classroom enough about the book so we know they have actually read it. Sometimes I can listen to them tell about a book, but most of the time I am helping others locate books. Occasionally, a teacher has a class set of books that all the students have read, so we write that book down for each student.
If I were doing this in a small school, I would use the same basic card and have the students read the same categories of books but on their own reading level. I would also have the party after everyone had completed their cards.
I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about my reading card program.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Monday, March 27, 2017
Book Swap Station
Hello!
I have an idea for you for books that you’ve weeded from your library. I set up a Book Swap Station that sits outside the library door so that anyone can stop by and swap a book to take home and read. Mine looks like this:
We obtained this small bookcase and decided it would be perfect for our swap station. I encourage students to take a book if they need one and bring another one later to substitute. (I really don’t worry about whether or not they bring one back or not.) You can see that some of the books have black markings on the lower spine. This is where we mark out our spine label for our discarded books. Others have been either donated by families or teachers wanting to de-clutter their classrooms. We just put them inside here and one of my Library Club members will straighten it as needed.
My sign is difficult to read in the first picture, so I took a close-up for you.
My Swap Deposit Box or Book Swap Drop Box sits just inside the library door. I decided that if I had one available, it would help in case students decided to trade out any titles that might possibly be inappropriate. I just took a nice larger box with a good lid and covered it with the blue bulletin board paper. It looks nice and just about any book will fit inside it.
On occasion, I set out a table in the hallway right outside the library door with a pile of books on it and a sign that says “FREE”. The books disappear like candy.
Rarely, but at times we weed a book that a particular teacher just loves and still uses. We discard it from our computer and just gift that teacher with the book.
All of these are ways that weeded books can still be useful. I am working on weeding in my library. It is hard to do, but I know that my library will be better off by weeding out books that are no longer valuable to our curriculum or worth the shelf space.
I hope you had a great vacation and are ready for the last push until June.
Audrey
I have an idea for you for books that you’ve weeded from your library. I set up a Book Swap Station that sits outside the library door so that anyone can stop by and swap a book to take home and read. Mine looks like this:
We obtained this small bookcase and decided it would be perfect for our swap station. I encourage students to take a book if they need one and bring another one later to substitute. (I really don’t worry about whether or not they bring one back or not.) You can see that some of the books have black markings on the lower spine. This is where we mark out our spine label for our discarded books. Others have been either donated by families or teachers wanting to de-clutter their classrooms. We just put them inside here and one of my Library Club members will straighten it as needed.
My sign is difficult to read in the first picture, so I took a close-up for you.
My Swap Deposit Box or Book Swap Drop Box sits just inside the library door. I decided that if I had one available, it would help in case students decided to trade out any titles that might possibly be inappropriate. I just took a nice larger box with a good lid and covered it with the blue bulletin board paper. It looks nice and just about any book will fit inside it.
On occasion, I set out a table in the hallway right outside the library door with a pile of books on it and a sign that says “FREE”. The books disappear like candy.
Rarely, but at times we weed a book that a particular teacher just loves and still uses. We discard it from our computer and just gift that teacher with the book.
All of these are ways that weeded books can still be useful. I am working on weeding in my library. It is hard to do, but I know that my library will be better off by weeding out books that are no longer valuable to our curriculum or worth the shelf space.
I hope you had a great vacation and are ready for the last push until June.
Audrey
Monday, March 13, 2017
NAD Teacher's Convention 2018
Hello,
We recently had an in-service for our conference and during the announcements, it was mentioned that the next SDA Teacher’s Convention is coming up in August 2018. That’s about a year and a half from now, but I started thinking.
At the last convention in Nashville, I gave presentations. In 2012 I spoke about organizing your small school library and also moderated a session for a Library Shop Talk. I noticed at the 2006 convention that there were Shop Talks for just about every possible subject or grade level that could be EXCEPT for Library. I decided that there would be one even if I had to moderate it. The reason I spoke about Organizing Your Small School Library because Patti Revolinski had enlisted me to help organize a small school library in the summers and by 2012 we had worked on four libraries and learned a lot. I knew that I could not get to every single small school and thought if I showed what we had done other schools could do what we had done.
I am considering giving a presentation in 2018 and would like to solicit your input. What kind of information would you like to see offered at the convention? Library organization, lists of books similar to what I send out periodically, a place to ask questions and see what others do with their small school libraries? You may have other ideas, too.
If you have any thoughts, please send me an email with your suggestions.
Have a great week and also a wonderful spring vacation next week!
Audrey
We recently had an in-service for our conference and during the announcements, it was mentioned that the next SDA Teacher’s Convention is coming up in August 2018. That’s about a year and a half from now, but I started thinking.
At the last convention in Nashville, I gave presentations. In 2012 I spoke about organizing your small school library and also moderated a session for a Library Shop Talk. I noticed at the 2006 convention that there were Shop Talks for just about every possible subject or grade level that could be EXCEPT for Library. I decided that there would be one even if I had to moderate it. The reason I spoke about Organizing Your Small School Library because Patti Revolinski had enlisted me to help organize a small school library in the summers and by 2012 we had worked on four libraries and learned a lot. I knew that I could not get to every single small school and thought if I showed what we had done other schools could do what we had done.
I am considering giving a presentation in 2018 and would like to solicit your input. What kind of information would you like to see offered at the convention? Library organization, lists of books similar to what I send out periodically, a place to ask questions and see what others do with their small school libraries? You may have other ideas, too.
If you have any thoughts, please send me an email with your suggestions.
Have a great week and also a wonderful spring vacation next week!
Audrey
Monday, March 6, 2017
New Books on Emotions
Hello,
I just bought a set of books on feelings and emotions. This particular set is geared for the K-2 grade level.
Each book in this set describe an emotion. The first page describes the particular feeling and may give a synonym for the feeling. For example, the book Afraid begins “We feel uneasy when we are afraid. It is an emotion.” The books each then go on and give examples of when one might feel or experience that emotion. Examples include “Abby hugs her teddy bear. She is afraid of the dark.” “Kim watches a movie. It is scary. She feels afraid.”
At the end of the book there are strategies to use when we are feeling the emotion. For the book Afraid, they suggest these things to do: draw what you’re afraid of and rip it up, learn about what scares you, face your fear with friends or family, think of your favorite happy moment. For the book Love, they suggest some things to do to make others feel loved.
The books are illustrated with photographs of children of many cultures are represented in each book.
This set came in a preview box and I originally hadn’t planned to purchase them, but our Kindergarten teachers came by to look at them and loved them. In fact, they were in the middle of a unit on feelings at that same time, so we let them take the books to use immediately. I know this set is meant for young children, but I also thought that an older student who is having similar issues might read it to a younger student and learn from it.
In this set, there are six books. The titles are Afraid, Angry, Happy, Love, Sad, and Surprised. They are published by Abdo Kids, $18.95 each, written by Julie Murray. For more information go to abdopublishing.com.
Have a great week!
Audrey
I just bought a set of books on feelings and emotions. This particular set is geared for the K-2 grade level.
Each book in this set describe an emotion. The first page describes the particular feeling and may give a synonym for the feeling. For example, the book Afraid begins “We feel uneasy when we are afraid. It is an emotion.” The books each then go on and give examples of when one might feel or experience that emotion. Examples include “Abby hugs her teddy bear. She is afraid of the dark.” “Kim watches a movie. It is scary. She feels afraid.”
At the end of the book there are strategies to use when we are feeling the emotion. For the book Afraid, they suggest these things to do: draw what you’re afraid of and rip it up, learn about what scares you, face your fear with friends or family, think of your favorite happy moment. For the book Love, they suggest some things to do to make others feel loved.
The books are illustrated with photographs of children of many cultures are represented in each book.
This set came in a preview box and I originally hadn’t planned to purchase them, but our Kindergarten teachers came by to look at them and loved them. In fact, they were in the middle of a unit on feelings at that same time, so we let them take the books to use immediately. I know this set is meant for young children, but I also thought that an older student who is having similar issues might read it to a younger student and learn from it.
In this set, there are six books. The titles are Afraid, Angry, Happy, Love, Sad, and Surprised. They are published by Abdo Kids, $18.95 each, written by Julie Murray. For more information go to abdopublishing.com.
Have a great week!
Audrey
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