1. I do remember an "icebreakers" hit from a while ago--might be helpful.
2. My small middle school starts with seventh grade--and here's what I
do. I meet with each section of seventh grade reading or English classes.
I have the students fill out a questionnaire titled, "Information About
You." Since I sam the "information expert at school," I say, "I need to
collect some on you." Questions include favorites (colors, athletes,
sports to play, sports to watch, singer/group food, tv shows, movie,
authors, genres, pets at home, etc.) Once I have collected those I go on
to share the policies and procedures of the library. We end with a tour of
the paperback collection and they may all check out a book. I then tally
the results of the surveys. The next day the same kids come in and we play
"Family Feud" game, but I call it "Friendly Feud." I say, "Out of 75
seventh graders surveyed, what is your favorite color?"--for example. The
class is divided into four or five teams. Most years I even do a third
visit with the science teacher soon after the first two.. I have a bunch
of science related questions and in order th answer them, the kids have to
make their way all around the library--the exercise is designed to get
them acquainted with the collections and services we have. (E.g., to
answer how many magazines about animals does our library carry the
students have to go behind the circulation desk and look at the
periodicals on display; or, to find out about Rutherford and the atomic
bomb, they have to find a 921 book, etc.) The questions are on cards and
the kids have answer sheets. The classroom teacher and I both have
question cards and the kids try to get as many answered as possible
3. I've done a contest during the first week of school where I read the
opening sentence of a children's book on the morning announcements each
day. Kids would come to the media center and put in their guess of what
book it was from. I'd draw one prize winner from the correct entries each
day. I tried to pick books they would be familiar with-- favorite picture
books, or books that they had read in literature class. Kids seemed to
enjoy it. It was the "great beginnings" contest for the beginning of a
great new school year...
4. Deciding what you will and will not allow in the library and going
over the RULES for the first of 1000 times......
5. I'm with the NYC system. There's a wonderful publishing fair that goes
on called "New York is Book Country." It happens usually the last week in
September. It's a big street fair kind of thing and we school librarians
are given the option to have a "visiting author." I don't know if there's
anything like that going on in Buffalo during the fall that maybe you
could "piggyback."
Janice Kowalski-Kelly
LMS, Buffalo PS #17
pani@olm1.com
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