[LM_NET] HIT: Visuals for library walls (LONG)

[Brenda Gilmartin <brenda_gilmartin@YAHOO.COM>]

Below find the suggestions I received for decorating my library's walls.  Thanks so 
much to everyone for your thoughtful, great ideas.  You all are very inspiring! 

Brenda Gilmartin
PS 75 
New York, NY
brenda_gilmartin@yahoo.com


I have one wall with award book posters and information that I

have printed and laminated.   I also have our state standard poster; a

library vocabulary wall.

 Robin Reich, Library Media Specialist

Martin City K-8 School

201 E. 133rd Street

Kansas City, MO 64145

816-316-5743

robin.reich@csd4.k12.mo.us
   
  
Books! Almost all of my shelving is up against the walls, which leaves 

the floor open for tables and whatever else the space is needed for.

 

Of course, that also eliminates places where kids can be unobserved by 

teachers!

 David Lininger, kb0zke

MS/HS Librarian

Skyline MS/HS

Urbana, MO 65767

(417) 993-4226
   
  
My advice is to make friends with your art teacher, if you have one.  I

 am in a high school library and have numerous art projects on my

 walls.  In a previous school, we had murals designed and painted by the art

 department.  

 

Linda S. Wilson, Library/Teacher

McKay High School

2440 Lancaster Dr. NE

Salem, Oregon 97305

wilson_linda@salkeiz.k12.or.us
   
  
I had horrible old faded posters on my walls when I got here three

 years ago and have slowly replaced them with posters from Upstart and ALA,

 among other sources.  I also have a few of the headers from

 Scholastic's Book Fair carts, which are great:  huge and colorful.  And each year,

 with my fourth-graders, I have them create posters based on different

 themes.  The different classes vote on their favorites and then 8-12 of

 those get laminated and put on the walls for the rest of the year.

  People have commented on how much better the library looks since I've

 been here :)

 

Becky

 

 

Becky Henderson, MLS

Gardner Elementary School LMC

218 E. Shawnee 

Gardner, KS 66030

 

hendersonb@usd231.com
   
  I have a large poster that shows the correct format for bibliographic citations.  
I also have a small collection of computer rules and tips posted by the computers.
   
  One of my favorite things is a quilt that my deceased grandma made.  She didn't 
quite finish some of the small details.  It's got 6 women in southern belle dresses 
holding parasols.  I always am amazed which students discover (without being asked 
to) that some stitches were left off, etc.  Plus it has sentimental value to me.
   
  Diane
   
  P.S.  And of course I have inspirational/reading encouragement signs hanging up.
  Diane Lungaro" dianelu@yahoo.com
   
  
I use movie posters that are based on a book- Princess Diaries, Charlie

and the Chocolate Factory, Hoot, etc.  Some movie studios will send you

free ones if you ask- Walden Media is very good- some I bought on Ebay.

 

 

Jennifer Vallery McGee

Thomas Baccaro Library

Bondy Intermediate- Pasadena ISD

713-740-0430 ext. 61149
   
  I change decorations with various months and what's going one in them  Check the 
archives for Jody Gerlock's list of Month is.  I got posters from ALA, Demco and 
teacher stores.  I also put up lots of kids' work when I have it.  You can easily 
get the state book award poster and Newberry and Caldecott from book suppliers and 
books shops. 
 Leslie 
 
 *******************************
 Leslie Greaves Radloff
 Teacher/ Librarian
 2180 Knapp Street
 Saint Paul, MN  55108
 (651)293-8735 Ext.1720
 (651)293-8737 (FAX)
 St. Anthony Park Elementary School
 leslie.radloff@spps.org
   
  
I let the art teacher know I would like to display students work.  She

lets me know what they are working on & I pick a theme to build a

display on Example thanksgiving I displayed still life, Or I just

 select

neat pictures.  They love seeing their work in the library.

 

Martha H. Gluck

Library

Arapaho Classical Magnet #101

469.593.6421
   
  What we did was we made a rainbow. Each of the colors of the rainbow was one 
class. For example, first was red and so on. The colors for the rainbow were the 
kids' hand prints. Inside the hand prints after they had dried, we took black and 
wrote the child's name and date. They liked being 6th graders and looking back at 
their first grade handprints. 
   
   Charlotte Nance
  Library Media Specialist
 Edmond Memorial  High School
 1000   E. 15th St.
  Edmond, OK   73013
 (405) 715-6524
 Go Bulldogs!
  Hi Brenda,
  We have started a ‘word wall’ with library vocabulary.  Once the words are 
introduced to the classes we put them up on the wall.
  Over in Nonfiction we have nonfiction, biography, Table of Contents, Glossary, 
Index, Volume, etc.  In Fiction we have fiction, title page, author, illustrator, 
etc.
  We also cover a variety of genres and post those words around the library.  They 
are great reminders for the students.
  Julie Williams
  Cherokee Elementary
  Tulsa, OK
  
My philosophy is "educate as well as decorate."  I don't have much

 wall

space, but with what space I have, I have placed posters from the

Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Most unframed posters run about 20 bucks.:

http://www.metmuseum.org/store/st_category_browser.asp/categoryID/%7BE1C4079

A-A72C-4EDF-9C68-E47312509CF1%7D/FromPage/catPrints

 

Good luck,

Andrea Kulick

 

 

Andrea Kulick, M.S. Ed., M.S.I.S.

Curriculum Lab Librarian

Graduate Advisor, Library Science

Marywood University

2300 Adams Ave.

Scranton, PA  18509

(570) 961-4770

akulick@marywood.edu

 

 

Try contacting your state's wildlife/fisheries agency or other agencies

 for posters. They usually supply freebies to schools. Same thing for

 the state historical society and the humanities society. 

 

Amanda Hutchins

Library Media Specialist

Rison High School

700 Main St.

P.O. Box 600

Rison, AR 71665

phone: 870-325-7673

fax: 870-325-6799

e-mail: ahutchin@rison.k12.ar.us <mailto:ahutchin@rison.k12.ar.us> 

I have some posters that came with books or that I picked up at

conferences.  They show book characters, illustrations from a book,

 etc.

 

 

I WANT something I saw at another library.  A mural above/around the

bookshelves that had characters or scenes from kids' books:  Clifford,

Arthur, Curious George, Librarian from the Black Lagoon above the easy

readers.   Harry Potter, a covered wagon from Little House, etc.

My sister can paint and draw, it's just convincing her to do it.

 

Rebecca Dickenson

Librarian

Eagleton Elementary

708 Sam Houston School Road

Maryville, TN 37804

865-980-1455

rebecca.dickenson@blountk12.org

Brenda,

    When I started out as a librarian back in the Neolithic Era, I

didn't have the money to buy posters for my four libraries' bare, beige

walls so I used the paper from the big colored paper rolls in the

stockroom and drew large storybook characters I thought the children

would recognize -- like Clifford the Big Red Dog, Corduroy, etc. If you

can't draw, see if you can enlist the help of the art teacher or high

school art students.

 

    These days I just have one big library and I have the walls

plastered with posters from Upstart and ALA.  That's an expensive way

 to

go, but maybe you can get your PTO to pay for some.  In my classroom I

have Dewey Decimal 

posters I made using Microsoft Publisher, a Jan Brett alphabet I

downloaded, and posters from various catalogs about using reference

books and the computer.  I also have an immense collection of storybook

stuffed animals and cloth dolls on display on the top of book cases.

Kohl's comes out with new story book related stuffed animals every few

months for only $5.00.

 

        If money is an issue, see if you can get some large state road

maps from AAA and pair them up with dust jacket covers (you can make

copies on a color copier) of books that take place in that state or of

authors born in that state.

 

                               -- Mary Jane Rudakewic, k-4 librarian

                           Tyrone Area Elementary School

                           Tyrone, PA

                           mjrudakewich@tyrone.k12.pa.us

Mostly posters on the walls, but hanging from the ceiling, now that's 

another story! We decorate for every season, and to make it easier on

 me I 

hung fishing line at varying lengths with paperclips on either end -

 one to 

slide on the side of the ceiling tile and the bottom one to hold the 

decoration of the season. Halloween its bats, ghosts, spiderwebs,

 spiders, 

etc. that the kids have made; Christmas/Winter Trees, snowflakes,

 Christmas 

ornaments, garlands; Valentines - I leave up the red, white, pink

 ornaments 

and put up strands of hearts that are stapled together and attached on

 the 

fishing line; spring/Easter/End of the year we have mostly flowers,

 animals 

(we have an ellison machine so we can cut out different shapes...btw,

 with 

middle schoolers you can reuse the same cut outs for about 2-3 years

 before 

they're too bent up). We also staple some of the matching cut outs on

 the 

wall. Right now we have lots of little 'gardens' splattered across the

 walls

We also decided this year to try to make 'springs' for spring with 

construction paper. my attempt failed miserably, and i honestly thought

 

theirs looked bad too but once they stuck a few flowers etc. on them,

 they 

look really cool. I'll try to get you a picture to send tomorrow.

Linda

Linda Wunderlin, Librarian

New Haven Middle School

900 Prospect Ave

New Haven, IN 46774

260-446-0230 X6008

lwunderlin@verizon.net

 

We have framed prints of art from children's books.  We got them from 

various sources online.  PTO funded them at 2 of my schools and the

 other 

was a memorial donation from a past teacher's family.

 

Cheryl A. Sturgeon

Elem. Media Specialist

Highland Local Schools (OH)

csturgeo@neo.rr.com
  I have a library word wall that is color coordinated by areas, ie. yellow for 
genres, green for research sources, etc. I have some of Follett's wonderful posters 
hanging in my teaching area as well.
 
 I am just having some sayings and pictures painted by a local artist as I write 
this. I think our artist will be finishing up on Wednesday. The painting is made 
possible by the gift of one generous family.
 
 Barb
  
I'm in an elementary library and have a "Mr. McGregor's Garden" theme

this year with the Potter stuffed animals.  I have posters of flowers

 on

the walls to make it looks like a garden as well.  I also have buckets

of potted flowers and on the tables I have little pots with seed packet

on sticks to look like vegetables are growing.  I hope this helps.

Lori

 

Lori P. Dyer, Librarian

Nebbie Williams Elementary

Rockwall Independent School District

972/772-0502
  I teach at a high school, but I think this idea is so cool. We have this fabulous 
art teacher on campus who actually painted permanent students reading books on our 
back library walls, between the rows. They are so real looking that the librarian 
and her aide had a hard time adjusting to each one as they were painted. Most of my 
kids' favorite is a girl sitting on a bench reading. The boy standing up next to a 
shelf reading the open book in his hands is the one that took the most getting used 
to because he is easy to see from the librarian's desk and it was literally months 
before she got used to him "watching" her work after hours. 
 
 Andrea Loyola 
 Jacksonville, TX H.S.
  Something visually attractive that will promote a welcoming and safe environment 
for everyone. Maybe some things that will arouse the curious mind to question: 
displayed
   books, art, stuffed animals, or old antique toys.  Good Luck!
   
  Alicia Corpos MLS
   
  
I pick up new posters and other stuff from our state librarian

convention every year.  Other than that, I have made stuff, Highsmith

and others have stuff for sale, but my staff like the stuff from the

venders and especially the stuff I make.

 

Colette D. Eason, Librarian

Marsalis ES

5640 S. Marsalis Ave.

Dallas, TX 75241

Box 317, TEA #183

Dallas ISD

ceason@dallasisd.org

972-749-3508

FAX 972-749-3501  

 

I got posters featuring books (A Pizza the Size of the Sun, An Arrow to

 the 

Sun, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Alphabet Under Construction, among

 others) , 

had them autographed by the author and/or illustrator, and framed in

 poster 

frames with bright  gold edges. It makes our space very colorful!

 

Betty Winslow, Media Center Director

BGCA

Bowling Green, OH

bgcalib@wcnet.org

 
   
   
   
   
   
  

 __________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 

--------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET  2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
 3) SET LM_NET MAIL  4) SET LM_NET DIGEST  * Allow for confirmation.
 * LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/
 * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
 * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/
 * LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html
 * LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------