The Daring Librarian

Here's a fun and easy to set up, book selection activity that you can basically do at the drop of a hat...or beat! (see what I did there?)  I am always looking for ways to beef up our circulation numbers, aka, getting more books into the hands of kids. I was wanting an activity I could ru before the holidays that was fast and fun with a very little preparation. I'm kind of lazy like that - especially right before the holidays. I've loved doing Speed Dating with Books. I've blogged about it here in 2017 , the year before in 2016 ,  and first in 2013 . But that activity takes hours to handpick hundreds of books, arrange on tables by genre or subjects, decorate with props and signage, and then afterwards re-shelve all those not chosen. This is a LOT easier! You only need 2-3 things: 1. Music (I used a boombox circa 1995) 2. Kids 3. Optional: Scratch & Sniff Bookmarks The scratch & sniff bookmarks are for the first 5-8 kids checking out books...

Here's a getting to know you idea to use with the kiddos. I'm going to try this next week. So, if it flops bad, I will be sure to let you know. Oh, and I'm NOT a great artist. So no salty comments. But I also think it's important for the kids to see that to do this you do NOT have to be a gifted artist to be successful. It's all about visualization. Please open this up in GoogleDocs & go to File > Make a copy. Make it your own!   Hope this works out for you! I think activities like these can and should be done throughout the year and not just at the beginning of the school year! What do you think? Here's my kinda lame (but funny) example -- wry grins & some eye rolls expected Here's also a Google Form that I got from somewhere...unlike on a Doc I can't see who made it! Ack! So for full transparency, this someone shared with me and I made a copy. Was it you? Do you know how I can find out? I'm a Google Certified Teacher / ...

Hello Book Lovahs! I want to share with you a favorite book selection activity that the kids dig, is super silly and fun, creates a lot of excitement, and makes the books fly out of the library! I first blogged about this with you back in 2013 , added a genre twist last year in 2016, and now I've added a video and a few new tweaks.  My kids love this lesson so much they even ask me in the hallway, “When are we going to do that again?” - so next year I'm going to try and run it both in the fall and in the spring. With my middle school kids this activity is guaranteed to make them grin, giggle, and cringe a little...ok, a LOT. Give yourself permission to really ham it up. Because prepare yourselves, book lovahs, this is super cheezy!   All the resources, printables, graphics, and videos are FREE for you to take, use, & share because they're made using the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.   ...

Hello Book Lovahs, How You Doing? You're Lookin Good!   Are you ready to make a love connection and to hang out... with a good book?    Get Engaged! So, I've been inspired lately by a lot of amazing teacher librarians who have written about doing this lesson or some kind of variation (resource links below) and though they sounded awesome, they were too much work.  Decorations, tablecloths, candles, writing activities, dating profiles on Good Reads , Shelfari , LibaryThing , or Shelfari -- so being naturally enthusiasticaly indolent, I wanted to find a quick & dirty way to get kids looking at books, checking out books, and moving around the library. Voila! This is my version. Think Chuck Woolery cheezy love connection with a dash of Marvin Gaye! How YOU Doin? Hot Set Up! Take a book cart and shop for some hot books around your library media center. That's right, be deeply shallow and choose books that have the most attractive covers, are hot popular, ...