School+Library+Month

School Library Month 2010 - AASL



Earlier this week, I posted a target asking for activities I could do during School Library Media Month. Below are the responses I received. ~Ann Carstens

Something fun we are doing right now is a March Reading Madness bulletin board (you wouldn't really need a bulletin board, you could keep score on a poster or something) I created 16 brackets (32 books) like they do for March Madness basketball. I pitted like books against one another (Twilight vs. Bloodline, Where the Sidewalk Ends vs A Light in the Attic) for the first round voting. Not all the books are Middle School level - I used some old favorites. I have great teachers who do the voting during reading class - it only takes a minute. I created ballots and students had to circle the book in each bracket they liked the best. They the votes were tallied and the winner of each pair was then paired off with the winner of the bracket next to them. The kids have gotten really excited about it and stop by the bulletin board all the time to see who is ahead. Some favorites have already been voted out!

book trailers) reading
 * Poetry Slam
 * Tee Shirt Design Contest
 * Bookmark Design Contest
 * Poster Design Contest
 * Dress Up as your Favorite Book Character Day
 * Author Visit
 * Video contest (promoting library, of course)
 * Book Trailer contest, or festival (like a film festival, except for
 * Get Caught Reading Day or Display Posters with Teachers caught
 * Do a bulletin board with teachers and their favorite books

1. Have the teachers tell you their favorite books. Then see if students can match the book to the teacher. Prize for the most correct. This makes a geat bulletin board with printed sheets to match located nearby.

2. Any kind of guessing game. Some of the most fun are M/Ms, bublegum, or other items that can be eaten. The prize is the item.

3. Do a synonym sheet for popular songs, similar to the Christmas carol idea. We have only done the Christmas one, so I don't have an example to share, but the kids liked the Christmas one. Example: Soundless Darkness= Silent Night

4. Do the first letter of several classid book titles and see if your students can figure out the titles. Example: FWTBT= For Whom the Bell Tolls

ALA has a link with a press release and "30 Days of Activities for School Library Month." @http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslissues/slm/schoollibrary.cfm

I'm planning some school wide contests for SLMM. One requires students to translate a message in semaphore that I'll have posted. Another is to guess the number of books in the library collection. For the third week, I'm soliciting pictures of teachers pets and the students will have to try to guess which pet belongs to which teacher. I'm hoping the students and teachers will find them to be fun