Library Love

Oh, how I love our library team. We work together so well, and they always have my back. Eternally grateful for lovely library assistants.



Speaking of grateful, I am over the moon with a group of 4th and 5th graders who helped me build our library Christmas tree. So far, this is the best way I've found to use outdated reference books and weeded materials. I showed them a picture, they worked together beautifully, and now each time I walk in the Hub, I am filled with joy.

Mother/Daughter Book Club

Way back in January, my virtual library friend Becky Maher posted about hosting a mother/daughter book club in her library. I knew then and there that I had to find a way to make this a priority in our Hub this school year. After much reading, I decided on The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z by Kate Messner. It is filled with such beautiful writing and a bit of mother/daughter conflict, and it proved to be a great choice for discussion. This time around, we invited 4th and 5th grade girls and their mothers to be a part of the evening. There was so much love in the room that it had me choked up as I welcomed everyone.

Part of the Gianna Z book is about how Gianna and her friend Zig look at everyone and give them tree names depending on their personalities. Our homework was to bring a photo of a tree that represented each of us, which we then added to our group mural. We even had one grandma who sent leaves all the way from Germany to her granddaughter so she could scatter them on our mural.




Our evening schedule was set up like so:

1. Eat Italian wedding cookies (they feature in the book often), drink hot chocolate and add your tree picture to the mural.

2. Have your photo taken with mom

3. We then broke into small groups of six and answered the questions we provided. Our idea was to ensure that everyone was comfortable and providing questions is a good way to do that. The back of the book had amazing questions, and we used those.

4. After about 20 minutes or so, we gathered as a group again to list some comments and questions for Kate herself. She graciously donates 10 free minutes on Skype, and we were set to meet with her the following week. The girls had thoughtful questions and tons of them!



Now for the father/son book club planned for the spring. I imagine it will look much different than the girls' group, but I still can't wait to spend the evening with all of them.

Skype & Connections

I am downright amazed at the power of Skype in schools, especially for those of us so far away. A simple conversation with a classroom teacher about how her class had so deeply connected to Barbara O'Connor's book Greetings from Nowhere led to an intimate Skype call with Barbara less than a week later. The students had so many thoughtful questions to ask her, and she was delightful and dynamic. It was the perfect way to wrap up a powerful read aloud.

The Hubmobile

Sadly, most of Bangkok is underwater at the moment, and our school was closed unexpectedly for two weeks. Even though our area is dry (thankfully!), the students were going a bit crazy without any new books from the Hub.



Some quick thinking created the Hubmobile. Our fabulous yellow golf cart became an old-fashioned booknmobile set up right next to our neighborhood grocery store. It quickly became a fun way for kids to come and check out some books to replenish their supply. I loved every second of it!


An extra bonus was that my daughter loved being the announcer. "GET YOUR BOOKS!" Beyond cute!

Branching Out

I've been a big fan of Wallwisher for some time now, but one drawback has been the limited number of characters allowed. As I am preparing for an upcoming presentation on the power of Destiny Quest book reviews, I needed something with more space to showcase some stellar book reviews the students have been doing completely independently (oh, how I love that they are so thoughtful when they are working on their own).

Enter Corkboard. Love it! It has the cool, old-school bulletin board look and enough space for me to include all their thoughtful words to share with librarians soon.



Here is the actual link to see all their writing.

Double the Fun

A while back, I ordered a book called Not a Box and loved it. All that creativity in one short book was great, but how would I use it in the library when it was just a quick book to share?

Enter the fabulous website called Draw a Stickman, recommended by my friend Laura. Since both the book and the website are all about creativity, it was a perfect combination. I read the book*, we brainstormed some activities that make us feel creative**, and then I showed them the website and did it together. (I won't spoil the fun here as surprise is everything, so please try it yourself!) We then had enough time for everyone to play on the site themselves before checking out. Double the creativity. Love it!

*What took me by surprise is that I read this all the way up to 3rd grade, and everyone ate it up.

**Their answers for what makes them feel creative were so cool. My favorite was a 1st grader who said, I feel creative when I ask questions. Like when I asked my mom why the walls don't just fall down. Then I felt creative."

Pre-K Class Books Gone Viral!

This year, my daughter is in Pre-K, and it's so fabulous seeing her around school and even better having her in the Hub once a week. Little did she know that her nose-picking would inspire what has become a series of hilarious class books at our school. I decided to make a class book with the Pre-K classes called Don't Pick Your Nose. We brainstormed all the places we shouldn't pick our noses--on a rocket ship, in the swimming pool, in the library.




Well, it turned out to be such a fun and funny project (even the 5th graders love the books!) that I did it with the kinder classes as well. There are murmurs of 2nd graders wanting to do the same project. Fun, fun, fun! It also made me realize how fun it is to make a finished product in the library that then goes into the classroom library. I want to do more of that this year! Maybe something with taking pictures next...



To display the book online, I used Youblisher. J'Adore Youblisher, and all you need is all the photos on one big PDF file. Simply upload when that is ready!

*To turn the pages on this book, click on the cover and then place your cursor on the page and click. Turns just like a real book, complete with page-turning sound (love that part).

*Above photo is one of our Kinder teachers who made her own groovy cover for the book. She says it's one they are reading over and over!