April is a Busy Month

April is a busy month and I couldn’t be more excited!  Since I have started using Twitter for my PLN my eyes have been opened to all kinds of fun projects and activities to do.  So in addition to state testing and formal observations that I have this month, I plan to:

1. Participate in Matthew Winner’s (@MatthewWinner aka The Busy Librarian) Shelf Challenge 2013.  I let Matthew assign me an easy section to read and lucky me got the “S” section.  I looked over my shelf list to start planning and saw there is a little over 500 books!  After I cleared out the multiple copies I have 400 titles to read.  I plan to start right away on Monday.  If  I only read on school days I need to average 18 to 19 books a day.  There are some great titles I’m looking forward to reading again and I’m excited to find some lost treasures.  Be sure to check back as I will post photos and update my progress.

2. April is School Library Month Plans are in progress for this, some ideas include:

  • Hide Post-it notes inside of several library books, when a student checks out one of these special books they receive a prize.
  • Treats for teachers who encourage check-out.
  • Announce on the morning show which grade level had the highest circulation for the previous day.
  • Give out prizes at faculty meetings to the teacher(s) with the highest circulation.
  • Have an library themed estimation station at the circulation desk. Students can enter the contest each time they checkout a book.
  • Allow students to check out more books at a time
  • Book mark contest
  • School wide door decorating contest

3. It is Poetry Month, we will be sharing poetry all month on the morning show and in my lessons with kindergarten.  We will also participate in Poem in Your Pocket Day, Thursday April 18.  I am looking forward to connecting with other schools through Skype to read poems together. I am also going to attempt to create some Book Spine Poems.  I plan to use it as a display and maybe get some of my library pages to try and create some during one of their shifts.

 

This is going to be a fun, busy month and I can’t wait for it to start!

Okle : )

6 thoughts on “April is a Busy Month

  1. Hello Okie,
    I am a new teacher librarian from Sydney, Australia.
    I agree with you – there are so many great ideas to try courtesy of Twitter 🙂
    I have heard of Poem in your Pocket Day too, I might have to celebrate a little early as we are on holidays on April 18 🙁

    Love your blog, keep at it- thanks for sharing,

    KimP

    • Thanks for visiting my blog and taking the time to post. Sydney, Australia! Wow, this is why I love Twitter and the Internet, we can connect half way around the world. Poetry would be a great way to send your kids off on holiday, good luck!

      Okle, with a L (not Okie, but I get that a lot!) : )

  2. Hi, Okle! So excited you’re participating in the Shelf Challenge (as well as so many other awesome celebrations in April)! PIYPD was definitely a memorable highlight from last year and one I hope you have a ton of fun celebrating! I’d love to connect with you via Skype some time!

    Sincerely,

    – Matthew

    • Connecting on Skype would be awesome. I can’t wait for Monday so I can officially start my Shelf Challenge. I think I’m going to make a special shelf marker and tell the students about it so they can see how far I’ve read when they come into the library during the month.

      Okle

  3. wonderful ideas, thanks for sharing. We are on Spring Break right now in CO and I am using this time to plan the rest of spring…your plans will definitely see some use at LEES

    • I hope your students like it. We are doing state testing through most of the month so hopefully this will be something fun for the students.

Leave a Reply to Okle Miller Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *