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Good Afternoon, I got a LOT of requests for hits for Library Club so I hope you guys don't mind I had to post it on the listserv to get it out to everyone who wanted it. I did get some good ideas, again thanks to all for your input. Sounds like there may be a lot of new library clubs for the young ones this coming year. Bonnie Martiny Media Specialist St. Charles Elementary Thibodaux, LA bmartiny@bellsouth.net bmartiny@lafourche.k12.la.us Original Request: Hi All. Once again I ask advice and help from you, the experts, to get ready for the coming school year. Now that you have given me a great read aloud list for my upper grades, my principal has requested I start a Library Club for our elementary school. We are a Pre-K-5th grade school. I have a very small library (a portable building) and we have about 260 students. She did say I could stick to 3-5th graders for this year at least. We are on a fixed schedule. I do have open periods at the end of the day for extra check out time but our recesses are one 8 min. morning and one 11 min. afternoon recess. Does anyone currently have a library club for these grade levels? What do the students do, what are your guidelines, how often do you meet, do you give awards, do they have duties, what's working, what is not working, do they sign in to work, does it include a book club or is it just library club?? I a middle school librarian for 2 years and we had a library club, but I am not sure the same format would work with students so young. I have to compose an informative letter and sign up form for the parents and students for the beginning of the year (which starts Aug 8th for students) Anything you can tell me I would appreciate! (The good thing is now I can pass on the yearbook to someone else as a Yearbook Club. Yea!) *Responses:(kind of long, includes some archives, I included anything that might worked for elementary level, although check out the archives because some of the middle and high school suggestions might work for you) I had a third grade library club last year. In the past, I used 5th and 6th graders. The third graders were not capable of shelving at all. I had them dust, separate fiction and non-fiction books and try to put them in order on the shelving cart, prepare lessons for younger grades (Ex. for President's Day I usually tape pennies onto a piece of paper and after the lessons, have the children draw the REST of Lincoln, using the penny as a head--the 3rd graders taped all the pennies on), hang bulletin board decor, straighten shelves, stamp the school name in new books, put on stickers, etc. Some days I was hard pressed to find tasks they could do. I frequently asked the art teacher if she needed anything hung, moved, etc. The 5th graders should be able to help shelve. In one school, I started a Scrabble club for the 5th-6th graders and it became very popular. I even ended up with parents coming in on their lunch to play Scrabble with the kids. Selchow & Righter sponsors a school Scrabble competition and you can purchase sets relatively inexpensively. You might want to consider that for the older kids? Or a Battle of the Books type event for the 4th and 5th graders in your building. One year I was in charge of the school spelling bee and that was fun. I did give all the kids who were helpers awards on award day. Just printed them on the color printer and laminated them. I haven't run a library club, but I'm planning on starting one next year for the 5th graders in my school. I want them to it to be both a book club and a service club. My plan is to have them meet once a week during their lunch. This is when clubs meet in my school. I will read to them while they eat. We will be reading chapter books, maybe a Newbury. Eventually, if they want to come to the club having read a book so we can do all discussion during that time, I might try that, but to start, it'll be a read aloud time. That's for about 20 minutes. For the other 20 minutes, I will be teaching them about running the library and enlisting their help with library maintenance. I plan on having them each be responsible for a shelf or two to keep in order. I'll also have them help me with spine and genre labels and other upkeep and improvements to the library. I've never run a club and I'm pretty new to this age group so I don't know if my plan will work well, but that's my ideas for now. I started a library squad this year. It was only open to grade 3 . They came in during their recess portion of the lunch period. I had a first grade class at that time. They helped me with various jobs that I would have ready for them. They would shelve books (Not that they did such a great job but they loved it), they helped the first graders with their writing activities. They also checked out their books (believe it or not I am not automated ). They were great and at the end of the year I had a library squad pizza party. I chose 2 students from each class and they came in on appointed days each week. Here's a project that might work for your "library club" I tried this when funding for my 1/5-time library aide was cut & I was left on a fixed schedule. I started a program called "ADOPT A SHELF" I made up adoption papers which featured a cartoon stork carrying a bundle of books. Students could adopt either a FICTION or NON FICTION shelf....after they passed the alphabetizing / Dewey test for parent-shelf-hood They signed a "certificate" stating that they would make sure the books on their adopted shelf were in 1) correct order, 2) they would re-file returned books. (This certainly saved my time), and the students really took pride in their shelves. Often they'd try to convince others to check out one of "their" books. I guess the program was really similar to "Adopt a highway" The library club does sound like fun. Maybe members could earn pins or badges. There's some cute ones available. At one time I had a "library pledge" that a teacher had given me; Maybe you could find one online? The teachers at my school have requested that I set up a reading club. Would you mind sharing any hits that you receive to your email? I had one at a previous school that I called the Dunaire Breakfast Club, which met once a week before school to read the Georgia Book Award nominees, prior to competing in the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. I usually provided something simple to eat, like chicken biscuits. Here is the website for the HR Reading Bowl: http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/hrrb/ *From the archives: . had a library club for years. I love it. I have a K-6 elementary and my sixth graders are in the club. I have a library application I require them to fill out and turn in by a certain date. It is similar to a job application... references, list skills they have they would make them good aides, reasons why they want to be a library aide, etc. I have found through experience that when I accept applications after the cut off date that they turn out to be the students that don't show up, etc. So, now, I am pretty firm in not accepting the applications after the cut off date. After I get the applications I set up interviews with the students. I have never turned anyone down who wants in the club... but I don't tell them that!! Usually I end up 15 - 20. They work in the library on an assigned day once a week. Time that works best for me now is before school until after the announcements. Kids check in with teacher and them come to me. School starts at 8:15 with student aids coming between 7:45 and 8:00 and staying until 8:30. Some kids like to come during recess after lunch to help... I have found it best to limit that to only being able to come on the day they are assigned. Not all will want to come during that time and it is not required.... but I don't want all 15-20 of them showing up and using the library for recess! I have had that happen. I have found that some will be tons of help... others will be kids who need you. I do not restrict it to kids who are good readers or even kids who like to read. If they think hanging out in the library or hanging me will be fun... that's good enough for me. I do require a homeroom teacher's signature and parent/ guardian signature on the library application. Occasionally I will have a teacher or parent remove a child because of grades, but I don't make that part of the selection process. Enthusiasm is much more important to me. Things we do... shelve books straighten shelves check books in and out help other students run errands help with reading promotions... during Children's Book Week the kids wrote skits, cheers, poems and shared them with classes. The last two years I have made a video with the library kids. We have a party of some kind at the end... this year I had a breakfast at the end of the year. I love it. I love the interaction with the kids... the one on one time I get to spend with them. They are never as much help as I want them to be! But they do keep me smiling. Good luck! I'll be happy to share my application with you but it is on my computer at work and I'm at home. Let me know if you want me to send when school starts in August. This was my first year as a teacher/librarian in a K-6 school of 140 students and I was faced with very few parent volunteers and no aide. Even with adult volunteers I still think a Library Club of students is valuable. I'll describe my first attempt at this. I have spent a great deal of time thinking about it for next year and would appreciate you forwarding any suggestions you receive. I haven't seen much on this in elementary. I had nil response from the Gr. 6 but the Gr. 4/5 were very eager. I slotted them in for two weeks in pairs - morning recess. We were not yet automated so cards needed stamping daily and I had them shelve fiction and E books. Other tasks were included as they arose. The two week period maintained their motivation. They were eager to sign up for another stint. I brought a treat for them on the last day. We had a Valentine party during one recess where we ate cupcakes and I thanked them. At the end of the year they were presented with certificates and bookmarks at a school assembly. This worked for me this year. I feel it could be improved but I'm not certain as to how. It would be easier if I was in the library fulltime as it is not fair to leave them without supervision. I was limited to having them morning recess. Hope this helps a bit and I that you get plenty of suggestions to pass on to me. I think it is really worthwhile to engage students in the running of the library. They love it and they can be very helpful. I ran a k-3 library for 7 years....600 students and no help... one thing I found to be successful was to label the easy book section really well... I took small boxes about 6"x9"x3deep and covered then with contact and put the letters of the alphabet for each section, then we would talk about these books being shelved for the author's last name(who is an author? first name, last name, call number, lots of teaching[skills] stuff there), and as students checked in their books they would shelve their own..... This works if its enough for you for the S books to be by the S, not necessarily in order alphabetically by author. I found it was easier to accept that than NEVER getting all the books shelved. The fiction section can work that way with 3rd graders. I always shelved nonfiction. Your idea about the middle school students sounds good to me though I don't have experience there.... I'm high school now and find even grades don't motivate aids to do it right!!!! But younger kids may be motivated by privilege and praise... worth a try. We have a Shelf Adoption program I started four years ago at my library. Students in grades 2-8 are eligible. 2nd and 3rd grades do Easy section shelves or Fiction shelves. 4th and up may do non-fiction shelves. Students pick one shelf. I make labels on the p-touch labeler that say: "This shelf adopted by ______ " Several times a month I inspect the shelves. Depending on the age, they must have the books all standing upright, none backwards, none upside down, etc. As they get older, I require them to remove any books that obviously do not belong on that shelf. You can also print out shelf lists for each student, but my students were so bad with it I stopped doing so. If we have the "F" books on the "F" shelf, I'm happy. If students pass inspection, they receive a smiley face by their name in my grade book. Smiley faces may be used to check out additional books, or traded in for prizes at the end of the year. Up until this year I've always traded one for one, little stuff from Oriental Trading Co. Last year I also had some stuffed animals of my own that I donated, and picked up some little inexpensive video games and radios at Wal-Mart ($1.00 apiece). These I raffled off, one per class. This year I plan to purchase some larger items, such as those little $20. b/w TV's, radios, etc. I also have some porcelain dolls I'm donating, and some more stuffed animals. We only have 180 students in the school, and only 60 or 70 actually adopt shelves. So it's not that expensive, and all the prizes I purchase come out of my supplies budget. You might could also get local merchants and parents to donate items. The students usually do a great job. They're also a big help when we have a "happening" in the library, and need to make the place look good. (Straightening shelves, etc.) They really do take ownership of the library now. They get VERY upset if anyone "messes up" their shelf. They also inspect the shelves in our public library branch to see how well they shelve! Ideas for things to do in library clubs Readers Theater Anyone's Guess Kit from Highsmith write book reviews and make a student folder Read - a thon Children's Book Week characters do illustrations bulletin boards games - scrabble, boggle quiz bowl battle of the books read book , watch the movie book talks autograph books make bookmarks Mystery book Goodie bags for teachers during library week Contests Lunch in the Library - discuss new books, current events, movies from books guest readers go to elem. school and read to younger children * Bonnie's note: What I plan to do is: 1. Check with my principal to see if I can just invite 3-5th (rather than 1-5th) graders to join the club and what she would like for my restrictions or elimination policies for membership to be.( I would like # of behavior referrals to dictate membership rather than grades) 2. Establish a monthly meeting schedule, open for each recess and before school for the club members to come in and assist, except on my duty day when there will be no supervision. 3. Get a parent/student information letter out for the beginning of school, get an application form made, send them out and then give the students one week to get them returned 4. Have a formation meeting and allow any one who made the membership list to decide if they still want to participate after hearing the plans for the club and the expectations and duties etc. 5. Print up some simple membership cards, kind of like a library card and laminate them 6. Keep a binder with ideas and sign in sheets for the students who come in to work(so I can keep track for service awards at the end of the year) 7. Have a suggestion box for the students to contribute any ideas anonymously 8. Incorporate as many of these good ideas as I can 9. Learn as I go and try to make it fun for the kids and for me! * I will definitely use the Adopt-a-Shelf idea so that members will know what shelves they are responsible for and I will assign the easy books to younger students and fiction to older, non-fiction to the experts and myself. This is a great idea. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. 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