Thank you all so much for helping with a tricky problem! I now have tons of
wonderful and fun ideas! :)
Sincerely,
Patricia
Original Post:
I need some advice on how to do orientation with K - 2 kids. In years past I
verbally go over everything - seating chart, a practice fire drill, library rules -
(I do the "how to take care of books" lesson another day) with stories thrown in
but it seems a bit boring. Does anyone have any other ideas how to get those
points across without a lecture?
HIT:
Try taking them for a "tour." Have "stops" be different locations of significance
in the library (or even where the bathrooms are outside the library room itself.)
Let them investigate the stops a little if you have the time. If not, just let
them move about and see each area up-close. Ours is a small library...but the
movement helps for the small ones. They
enjoy the "tour."
**************************
Someone once sent out a link on LM_NET for a college library webpage where the
staff used Marshmallow Peeps in pictures to "demonstrate" library procedures.
I loved the idea so much that I bought several packages of Peeps that spring and
posed them all around the library, took lots of pictures and created a Powerpoint
slide show called "A 'Peep' at the Library".
I used the Powerpoint for the last two years. This year, I am showing a newly
revised version called "'PAWS' in the library". I have pictures of my two puppies
and my assistant's dog in the intro section then I put "pet substitutes" in the
demonstration section - dog puppets posed as needed.
The students and teachers love the slide show. I hear comments about it throughout
the school year and it's a fun way for the kids to hear a presentation of the same
information they hear every year.
One drawback is, if the slide show is too cute, the kids remember the picture but
not the procedure!!
************************
Some of the best ideas are from LM_NETTERS. I can't take credit for this but I can
say it works wonderfully with grades 1 and 2. I did combine a few different
people's ideas.
To reinforce good book care I have a colorful box I call a curiosity box--
(shoe box covered with wrapping paper). Inside I place "props." As I bring out
each one I ask them what it has to do with taking care of books.
~small doll (keep books away from babies)
~small stuffed dog (keep books away from pets)
~markers & crayons (keep these away from books)
~granola bar &/or juice box (keep food away from books)
~bookmark (use to mark place, do not turn book or corner of page over)
~bar of soap (only hold books with clean hands)
You get the idea. It is so much more fun than just talking about what to do.
Perhaps you could use props for the other rules that you would like to put across.
(Fire truck for fire drill, dollhouse sized chair for seating chart, and library
cards/book cards for borrowing rules).
**************************
I would only go over the how to take books out and sit for a story on the first
day. Then I read a story usually about libraries or librarians and then we checked
out books. All other rules and book care was gone over then next few weeks.
**************************
Our school is heavily involved in a program called Caring School Community and one
of our big pushes is class meetings which give students "ownership" in the class
expectations. We sat together and had the students throw out what they thought
should be the rules and then classified them into four key expectations or "library
basics". Not only does it keep the students involved in the discussion but it is
fun to listen to what they think is important for the library. I did it with 20
classes grades 1-6 and everyone of them hit on all the needed points.
********************************
This year I talked with the 2nd graders. Then they went to tables with the task to
write a rule with a dark colored crayon and then to illustrate it. I chose the
best of these and used them to go over rules with K - 1. It also makes an
attractive display.
*****************************
I was in the same boat with boring orientation until this year I tried something
new...I started out by reading The Shelf Elf by Jackie Hopkins, which discusses
library manners and book care. Then I use a PowerPoint I made that contains slides
of good and bad library manners and alternating slides of happy green faces and
frowning red faces. I made two craft stick faces for each student in the class
(one happy green face and one red frowning face); they hold the green in their
right hand and the red in their left and as we go through the powerpoint they have
to decide whether to hold up the green face for a good library manner or the red
face for a bad one. The alternating slides of red or green faces give them the
"answer". After the presentation, they get a picture of "Bookerpillar", the
caterpillar in the story, which is really just a copy of a bookworm pattern I had
that I edited to resemble Bookerpillar, and each student writes down 3 good library
manners on the page and can then color it. They seem to be enjoying it. Hope this
idea helps!
Patricia H. Gray
pgray@fcps1.org
Librarian, Ritchie Elementary
New Baltimore, VA
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