The Problem with Shortened Library Special

This is my first full year as a library para-educator at a school in northern Illinois.  Our school district, in an effort to comply with the states requirements for physical education has cut our grade school library special time from 40 minutes to 20 minutes a week.  
All our grade school librarians were very concerned about this shortened library special time, but after living it for over half a year, I have found more reasons to express concerns.  Here are the reasons why we need 40 minutes for library special!

1. No Time to Find books:  Most of our class sizes are 18-36 students each.  Since the librarian must check these students out, he or she has NO time to help students find a book.  Some times a student doesn't know what they want to read, sometimes they cannot see the call number, or they need books for reports in class.  There is no time in library special for this help!
2. No Time to Read Aloud:  I actually read books on days I have parent volunteers in the library, but there are always 6-10 students who are still looking for books and checking out while I read.  These students are disappointed to miss the books or miss checking out to hear the books.  They should not have to make a choice between the two options!
3. No Time for Teaching basic Library skills!  To teach students to use our online catalog, I use Chrome books.  If I cover how to use the catalog in a 20 minute special, students cannot check out that day, because their is no time and no librarian at the check out desk.  And children need the call number lessons several time over the year, and over non-fiction and fiction categories, not to mention where to find these items in the library.
4. No Time to Get to know readers and their preferences!  I would love to get to know every child's favorite genre, author, and books, but there is no time for discussing and showing them more of their favorites when we are struggling to check out.
5. No Time for the students to develop good library browsing habits.  When I was a child, my family visited the library once a week and we had an hour on our own to find books.  I learned to find my favorite genre:  fiction and wandered the stacks, pulling books and reading covers.  I found book displays, and browsed the card catalog for more books by the same author, or on the same subject.  A 20 minute special does not allow children to develop any skills for making good selections that will lead to a good book match and more reading!
6. No Time to create a love of reading and libraries!  How can we create love for a room they are rushed through and they only have time to view things they always check out.
7. No Time to find variety!  Some of the things I have done to prep for our shortened library special, is to pull books and put them out on our work tables, I have added more labeling to our shelves for popular series with graphics so these books are easy to find, but because their is no browsing time, students will choose their favorites over and over, or favorites of their peers and not try books and authors new to them.  I find I focus on promoting series books, so I know once a child is engaged they will have ideas for their next book, but what about all the great books with no sequels!?
8. No time for checkout!  If you noticed the length of the library special and the class size, you will notice we have less than a minute for our students just to check out.  Without the help of volunteers I am unable to check out every child and must  ask them to leave their books and student ids in a pile and then bring the books to them later.  Even on days with volunteers, we are often, both checking students out in order to have them leave with their books.
9. No time to prioritize reading TOO!  Reading is one of the most critical skills your child needs to succeed in life, so finding them books that create a love for reading is critical too!  
10. We are the ONLY library some of these students have as some of our populations is NOT in incorporated areas of the city.  These students deserve a rich library experience!

I know our teachers are striving to meet common core goals and they have no time to give, but the school district must find a way to give library special more time.  Let's create a love of, and culture of reading!  Please consider asking our schools for more library special time for your child!

Future Friday: Using digital Books with Your Child

Have you tried digital books for your child?  I would encourage parents to give this a try and determine if digital books fit their child's need and reading habits, and I have listed some pros and con below.

Advantages:

1. Easy to acquire!  I love that I can down load a book at bedtime for my children or myself and don't have to leave the house.
2. Long books don't discourage the reluctant reader.  I have students who would like to read books like Harry Potter, but they see the size of the books and refuse to take them off the shelf or check them out.  Children who check out or buy a digital book don't realize how long the book may be.
3. Portable!  As a parent I often would check out 8 books hoping my child would choose two.   Carrying 8 books home or on vacation can be heavy, so I love the digital books portability factor!
4. Cheaper Books!  Kindle books are usually much cheaper than hard copy books.
5. They may promote reading.  Some children will be excited about reading on a tablet and you may find that is one of the only ways they will read.
6. Small size.  You can now keep a large library without needing to make space in your home!

Disadvantages:

1. They may inhibit reading.  Research has shown that children prefer physical books, so this may keep some children from reading enough.  Digital books shouldn't be the only source of reading for your child, just an option for certain needs and or circumstances.  Watch for beginning readers with older siblings who regularly hear chapter books.  These children may find entry level readers boring and struggle to get started reading themselves.  You will need to find entry level readers that capture their interest and are enjoyable.  I found this happened with my youngest (because I read chapter books to them and we used audio books) and worked with my local librarian to find some great early readers.
2. They may change your child's and or family's reading habits.  I was so exited to have an e-reader a few Christmases ago that it took me several months to realize, it stopped me from taking my children to the local library for their books.  Keep your library visits going even when downloading digital books!
3. Selection is limited.  Not every book is available in audio form at your library or through your subscription service.  Be sure to keep reading a variety of books not available in digital format.
4. Your child may be distracted by games and apps on the tablet.  If your child reads digital books on an iPad or Amazon Fire tablet, there are other apps on these tablets, so your child may be tempted to play instead of read.  Consider a reading devoted tablet like the Paper White Kindle from Amazon to prevent this.
   

Thrifty Thursday: Children's Book on the Cheap!

I always encourage parents to treat their child's reading like they would their eating habits.  It's important to provide choices and variety.  But, many of our students are in an unincorporated portion of our city and do not have library cards.   Buying a variety of books is not always affordable, so I would love to share some tips on how to get books for your children for free or cheap today.  Let the book thriftiness begin!

1. Check out local resale.  Our local PTO holds a Children's clothing and toy resale twice a year, and there's one coming up on April 13, 2019 in Sycamore, IL from 8:00 am to 2:00pm, with most items listed half price from 1:00 pm -2:00 pm.  This is a fabulous place to buy children's books too!  Find more info on the sale here.  Sale regulars, know to bring a laundry basket to collect their find and for easy check out.
2. Little Free libraries!  Our town has little libraries all over.  As a parent, I loved to take my boys on bike rides to our town's little libraries and get exercise and reading!  Find your local little libraries here.  Then get your bikes, your helmets and back packs and head out with the kids!  Please remember, these are libraries and you should return the book or replace it with one of your own.
3. Thrift stores such as Salvation Army and Goodwill.  Our Local PTO will take all the items from our thrift sale over to the PTO after our sale, so if you cannot make a local PTO sale, visit your local thrift shop the next week for great finds you may have missed.

Check back later this month for more tips on finding children's books cheap!

Wizard Wednesday: Before or After Harry Potter

If you have children, sooner or later your child will probably bring home Harry Potter books.  I have students in every grade checking out Harry Potter.  So I am calling this post Wizard Wednesday and I am sharing wizard books for those too young and for the older child who has run out of HP books!  Here are some of my favorite Wizard books available at North Elementary's Library:

1st-3rd Grade
The Rise of the Earth Dragon (Book one of The Dragon Master's Series photo at top) by Tracey West Published by Scholastic.  This series is a Scholastic Branches book.  Branches books are written for the child who is ready to move up from easy books, and not quite ready for chapter books.  A five star rated book about an 8 year old boy named Drake who is snatched away to train with dragons at the kings castle.

3rd-5th Grades
Midnight for Charlie Bone (book one in the Charlie Bone Series, photo above) by Jenny Nimmo.  The story of Charlie Bone, who discovers his magic at 13 and his struggle to keep his evil family from misusing or taking his powers.

Magyk by Angie Sage (book one in the Septimus Heap Series photo above).  The story of a magical seventh son of a seventh son, stolen as a baby.  Another 4 1/2 star book.

The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet (book one in the Secrets of Droon Series) by Tony Abbott.  A four and a half star book about a boy named Eric and his friends, who enter a new world through a staircase in his basement.

Try it Tuesday: Audio Book to Spark Reading

One of the strategies I have used to spark reading as a parent is to check out the same book as an audio book and a physical book.  Play the first disk or portion of an audio book for one night, then replace the audio book with the physical book for the next night.  You can also, let children listen to the first book of a series and then swap to the physical books in the rest of the series.  And finally, you can check out an audio book for a great author, and then check out other books by the same author, but not in the series as the audio book.  

Here are some books at our North Library you can check out in both formats:

The Secret Kingdom:  Book One in the Chronicles of the Red King by Jenny Nimmo
The Stones of Ravenglass:  Book Two in the Chronicles of the Red King by Jenny Nimmo
Charolette's Web by E. B. White
The Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems

Here are some audio books we have from authors we have in our library:
The Naughty Nork by Bruce Coville


Our North Library selection of audio books are very limited and your school library's selection maybe limited too, so here are some other options for finding audio books for free or cheap:

1. Visit your local library
2. Add the Amazon audio app to your phone or tablet.  You get one free audio book just for downloading the app.
3. Sign up for a free trail of Amazon's audio service.
4. Visit your libraries book sale and look for resale audio books.

APRIL is National School Library Month

Welcome to National School Library month!  For the last year and a half I have been the librarian para-professional at an elementary school in Sycamore, IL and I love my job!  

As a parent, I know how critical reading is to the success of our children, so being apart of that journey in other children's lives in an honor and a privileged.  I also feel a great responsibility being the grade school librarian.  Reading must be enjoyable for a child to become a reader.  And in our current society, their interests are being consumed by video games, smart phones, TV and more.  Along with this competition for reading time, many of our student body are not part of our local library system, and our grade school library is the ONLY library they know and use.  So, this month I am devoting my blog to posts to engage our school parents and students.

Our library is in the middle of a fund raising campaign for new shelving, tables and chairs and more.  The current shelving is sagging and some even broken (see photo below).  Our new vision includes mobile shelves that can be rolled to the side for events and speaker visits (see photos at the top of the screen).  We also hope to update our technology, and create a Maker Space.  Find out more about this fundraising campaign and donate here.

Help me celebrate National School library month, and share the love of reading with our community!  We must treat reading like other priorities in our children's lives, make sure they under stand the value of reading, provide them with variety and abundant good reading choices, make reading part of their daily routines, and keep it fun!  Even if you're not part of our community, you will enjoy great tips about raising a reader and engaging your child's love of reading.  So, check back daily and see what's going on as part of our celebration!

A Valentine's Day Baby Card

A co worker had a baby on Valentine's day and I needed a card.  I am currently obsessing over easel cards, so I pulled out the Cricut DS and Anna Griffin paper and made a card.  I am going to share this for the Bitten by the Bug 2 Valentine's Hearts challenge because he was born on Valentine's day!

You can find the Cricut DS file if you like here.  You will need Reminisce Accents, New Arrivals, Anna's Lace Cards, Close to my Heart Flower Market, and Lacy Labels and a printer.  You will need a scoring wheel or just remove the dashed line in the card base.

To assemble the card, fold the top portion of the card base in half across the top, along the scored line, matching right side of the paper to right side of the paper.  Add stork layer and light blue layer on top of dark blue layer.  Add to the green circle and glue the top half of the green circle to the top of the card base, matching wrong side of the card base to the wrong side of the green circle.