LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Thanks to everyone who sent great ideas about our "I Love to Read" Olympic
activites. Here's a collection of those I received:
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I have done an Olympic theme in the past and the kids really enjoyed
it. I put up a bulletin board with the 5 rings, each one in its color. I
assign each color to a section of the library collection, for example,
folktales, biographies, poetry, the sciences, sports. Each child who
participates gets a little booklet which I make. Each page has a outlined
ring at the top with its area of the library. Below are lines to fill in the
author, title and call number. As they read a book in each of the sections
they fill in their page and I stick a colored ring in their booklet. I make
the colored rings out of the paper reinforcements, coloring them by the
sheet. When they complete their booklets and get all the rings they are put
on a list of students who have gotten a gold award. If they only complete
four, they go on a silver list, those with three go on the bronze list. I
put these lists in the library and in the parent newsletter. Also, every
child who has acheived the gold listing has a book plate put in the library
book of their choice saying they went for the gold in the 1998 library
Olympics.
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I think our school will also be doing something along those lines.
At another school where I was before, we did "The Winter Reading Games."
Our school was located around a courtyard, so our hallways went all the
way around. We started the Games off with a marathon. The superintendent
came and gave an inspirational talk, then he, our principal, and two
chosen students ran a lap around. The art teacher had made a torch for
them to carry. We had measured the distance around and as the day
progressed, each student got to run a lap, carrying the torch. The poor
torch was pretty bedraggled by the end, the kids just weren't able to
hold it in the air, they flung it all over as they ran! We ran until we
reached the 26 mile mark of a marathon. We did station volunteers at each
corner so that no one got hurt as they ran through. We divided the time
period (4 or 5 weeks, I think) into the number of events at the Winter
Olympics. I think there were nine then, maybe 10 now. (They have a couple
of good books available in bookstores already, telling about the events
at the Winter Olympics.) We had booklets printed up and a symbol for each
event on a page. Students agreed to read so much during that time period.
If they were successful, they turned in their booklets. We stamped them
and gave them a bookmark from that event. The Olympic events were used
just as a way of marking progress for the kids. At the end we decided how
many events the students had to have completed to get bronze, silver, and
gold medals. We had a ceremony to award them to the students.
Upstart has some great posters, bookmarks, stickers, medals, etc.
with this theme. Do you have their catalog?
I was also thinking that it would fun now to have some field trips
to get kids acquainted with the actual Olympic events, such as downhill
skiing and ice skating. I don't know of any local bobsledders, though!
I'm going to rethink that here. My school is totally low-income and all
of the winter Olympic events are ones that would require a lot of money
to get involved in since they need special equipment and facilities. I
don't know if children would appreciate knowing about something that they
clearly wouldn't be able to afford.
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You could coordinate "Go for the Gold" with Newbery Award books. One
year, we made torches for each student. There was room to list 5 books
on each torch. Torches were hung on a bulletin board in the main
hallway. The PTA gave $1.00 coupons for completed torches that could
be applied to their bookfair.
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The January/February issue of Copycat magazine had a lot of tieins to
the winter olympics. They had some ideas for things you could do with
flags, and they have "pins" that you can xerox and distribute to
students to collect, like they do at the real olympics.
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Winter Olympic Games
>
> The Winter Olympic Games begin next month in Nagano, Japan. The
> Official Website is one of several excellent online resources, with
> information about the host country, each participating country, their
> anthems with flags, the events, Olympic History, schedules, and even
> pages to print out and colour. You'll also find instructions for building
> the "snowlet" mascots using the ancient paper folding techniques of
> origami.
>
> 1998 Winter Olympic Games:
> http://www.nagano.olympic.org/
>
> The "Youth Program Online", sponsored by a coalition of Canadian
> telecom companies, has both a general and 'teacher only' area
> in English and French. If you're a teacher who wants to feature
> the Olympics as part of a unit in (or with a focus on) Media
> Literacy, Japan and Japanese culture, Canadian Winters, or
> Olympic Values (Leadership, Excellence, Respect, Peace, Human
> Development and Fun), then this site will provide a wealth of
> ideas.
>
> Youth Program Online:
> http://youtholympic.coa.ca/ (main web site)
> http://youtholympic.coa.ca/teachers/ftohome.html (teachers)
>
> Note that Britannica Online's "Winter Games" feature will be freely
> available until March 1, and has very comprehensive information
> about the history and current status of the Olympics.
>
> Brittanica Sporting Record:
> http://winter.eb.com/
>
> Finally, you might want to be prepared for the Olympics four
> years from now, when they will be in in Salt Lake City, Utah:
>
> Salt Lake City hosts 2002 Olympic Winter Games:
> http://www.infowest.com/olympics.html
>
> Note that some sections of the above sites (especially the
> Official site) require features found only in a fairly advanced
> browser, but most of the other sites have plenty of information
> that will be useful even if your situation is a bit less than
> "high tech".
>
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I forgot to mention--we also had paper ribbons to put up on the hallway
of the schol so kids could check their progress and then tey got the real
ribbons at the end of hte contest.
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I and a teacher designed a REading Olympics. We haven't done it in a
long time because everyone does Book it now. Basically we had events on
paper such as read to a child, parent read to a child, read to a parent
or adutl, read a magazine, read a book, read a newspaper etc. We had
many events to choose from. For awhile we did it by item such as one
point per book, magazine article etc. We later changed it to minutes
read which seemed more fair to older students. Younger students just
had to look at a book if they could not read. 300 points was a gold
ribbon, 200 points silver, 100 points bronze. We had brown ribbons
for bronze and gold and silver. bronze winners got admission to a movie
such as the HObbit with. SIlver got popcorn and juice added. Gold got
all that plus a grab bag. I bought junk they would like from Orient
Express or you can use other such catalogs. I also solicitated prizes
frommm loocal stores. MacDonaldds would send one of their charaacters
oover with free pop or juice.. It was a big event that ran all
afternoon. One year we had a sledding party with hot chocolate instead
of a movie. I can't remember how long the reading portion lasted--maybe
a month. I t is very labor intensive. You have to generate the tally
sheet for them and aa totals sheet for yourself. I don't know if I
have any of that stuff any more. I could look. It was before the days
of glitzy computer graphics so you could reallly do it up nice now.
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I am in a middle school, but I wanted to just suggest the "outline" of an
idea I did (mine in conjunction with summer olympics). I set up reading
"events" that students could enter using an entry form. For example, a
"long jump" would be to read a long book (number of pages set by me). A
"triathlon" would be to read a short book of nonfiction, a short book of
fiction, and a short biography. There were lots of various "events" with
different requirements. They could enter several times, but had to finish
one entry before beginning another. On the entry form, the student had to
give the event chosen, and the books read, and I asked for a parent and
teacher signature to verify the reading. Is there cheating? Of course,
but by having parents sign, I believe it is at least good PR for what the
library is trying to do. All "entries" by the deadline set were put in a
box and a drawing was held for various prizes. Top prize was a trip to the
movies (we have to go 30 min. to get to a theater, so this was a good
prize). 4 students won this, and we went in my car.
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The January/February issue of Copycat magazine had a lot of tieins to
the winter olympics. They had some ideas for things you could do with
flags, and they have "pins" that you can xerox and distribute to
students to collect, like they do at the real olympics.
Thanks!
You guys are as good as gold -- even better!
Brenda Strack
Media Specialist
Ben Franklin Elem.
Rochester, MN
bstrack@esc.rochester.k12.mn.us
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