Library Entrance

When I started working at the Kennedy library, I did not like looking at the door of the library. It was boring and hanging on the door, covering the window were some horrible old blinds that had been there for many years. They were dusty, dirty, half of them were missing and they did not cover the window completely. One day I pulled the string and to lift them and the string came out. It was time to do something but what? That same month, we had our district library monthly meeting and it was held at the Graham School library. The library clerk at that school, Teri, has been with the district for many years and she is the one person that I go to with all my questions. She is very creative and a very nice person that is always willing to help. When I walked into her library, I noticed that she had something covering her window and it was awesome. I should have taken a picture of it because it was better then what I came up with but I needed something quick and something that didn't take too much time (Teri's was actually made out of wood).



This is what I came up with. I trimmed a piece of cardboard so that it would fit into the window frame on the door. I then wrapped the cardboard with some black butcher paper used for bulletin boards. Then I wrapped some fall like fabric that I had in the library. I stapled some black construction paper on top of that, decorated it with a poster, a sign made on Microsoft Publisher and a couple of book clipart also from Microsoft Publisher.


On the back side, I stapled a poster to the cardboard, added a couple more clipart pixs and another sign that I made using Microsoft Publisher and that's it. I was ready to place it into the window frame but how was it going to stay in place?



I originally used glue dots but it did not stay in place. I then used double sided foam tape, cut small pieces and placed them around the cardboard and that seems to be working so far. We will see if this solution works once the weather gets colder. Teri from Graham used the plastic clips used to hold up mirrors but hers is made out of wood. I hope you find this useful. I am going to have to go to Teri's library and and get some pictures of hers.

Award Winners!

Can't find something to check out? How about an award winner?

Most of the time when the kids come into the library, they already have an idea of what they are going to be checking out. They ask me if I can help them find something about cars or dogs, snakes or sharks, etc. But once in a while, I do get the kids that have no idea what they are looking for and these are the kids that I made this display for.  

I tried to make this a comfy spot where the kids can come over, choose a book from the display, look through it and decide if they want to check it out. When a student tells me they don't know what to check out, I point to the display and say, "have you looked at some of the award winners?" I explain to them that these books have received awards, so obviously someone thinks these are great books. I walk them over and show them some of the books and tell them a little about the awards and the books. Sometimes they find something that interests them and sometimes they don't.  I really like having these books displayed, it sure beats having them stuck in a shelf, hidden from view.

One of these days, I might sit in this comfy spot and read some of these awards winners myself (again).

Library Contest

Be the first to read it contest!

This week I started a new contest in the library. I am raffling off the chance to be the first person to read the newest (to our library) I Survived books. These books include:

• I Survived #10: I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii, AD
• I Survived #9: I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944 
• I Survived #7: I Survived the Battle of Gettysburg, 1863

The way I introduced the contest was a great way to get the kids excited about these books.  First, I have to say that the kids at my school love the I Survived series (mostly the boys), therefore it didn't take much to get the kids excited about these new books. I added these books into circulation this way because I feared for my life! Do you know what would have happened to me if I placed these books on my "New Books" shelf and I was anywhere near that shelf?! I probably would have been trampled! 

When the upper graders came into the library this week, I explained to them the rules. I told them that if they wanted to enter the contest, they had to write their name and room number on a slip of paper and place it into the box that corresponded to the book that they wanted to read. If they wanted to improve their chances of getting any one of the books, they could place their name in all three boxes. But they could only place one slip per box. One small detail that I forgot to mention was that they could enter the contest anytime during their library time, so when I released them to check out books, a horde of kids ran to the desk! I had to quickly get out of the was because I could have been killed! :)  

How did I make the boxes for the contest? I am a scrapbooker, so I never throw things away. You never know when you might be able to use them. Every time we have a Scholastic book fair, we get these cool boxes for the "All for Books" program. Once the bookfair is over, they still look pretty good, so I don't throw them away. I placed a piece of construction paper to cover the front window and most of the box. Knowing that the box was going to be against something, I didn't even bother to cover the whole box. I then went into Destiny, looked up the books and printed the cover of each book on the color printer. Once that was done, I taped the printout onto the book and voila!  

The last thing I did was grab several books from the shelves that were related to each one of the books and placed them next to the boxes. Now I was ready to present the books. When the students came into the library, after explaining the contest, I read the first chapter of all three books. You should have seen their faces! I also explained to them that I was going to choose the winners in two weeks but if they couldn't wait, I had other books they would be able to check out today. The books I had pulled were about Pompeii, volcanoes, Nazi invasion related, Gettysburg and the civil war. The kids were very excited and did check out some of the books I had pulled.










As you can see, the kids were very eager to sign up. It was very cool!

Most of the kids wanted to get their name in!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
 Even the girls were entering their names into the contest!
This week I will mentioned the contest again for the kids that were absent last week and next week I will pick the winners. I can't wait!