Re: [LM_NET] ELEM: Using Booktrucks

[Anne-Marie Gordon <media.teatime@GMAIL.COM>]

Hi, all.
We use paint sticks (free at the hardware store!) as shelf markers.  I
use them with kids even in kindergarten.  I pull books for special
displays, but with over 30 classes visiting the library every week,
it's actually less time-consuming to let them go to the shelves than
to try to pull stuff for a bookcart.

Since more than half my building consists of "pre-readers" (at least,
until about January) I have picture labels everywhere--more than sixty
in the non-fiction section alone--to help kids find lions, dinosaurs,
ballet, sharks, Henry and Mudge, Clifford, or whatever.  We also use
Follett, and so our OPAC has a graphic interface--click on the picture
of the animals, then on the picture of the shark, etc.  This all
doesn't work perfectly, of course ("Mrs. Gordon, why don't you have a
picture of a platypus on the shelf?") but the vast majority of kids
choose their books independently every week.

During our Book Fair, we do have to have the kids borrow from a cart
(so they won't go crawling behind those big silver shelves.)  One
first grader grabbed a paint stick and headed purposefully out into
the library, and I called him back and told him he'd have to choose
from the cart today.  He looked at the cart, looked at the library,
and looked back at me.  "You're joking, right?" he said.  I could see
Mr. Smartypants' point--with 20,000 items in the library, why was I
asking him to choose from among a few hundred?

My two cents!




On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 2:37 PM, Amy Marquez <amysebayorders@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello everyone.  I am a new elementary librarian.  I have a quick question.
> The previous librarian at my school used to pull books for each grade level
> that visited the library each day.  For example, one booktruck had 1st and
> 2nd grade level books and another booktruck had 3rd-5th grade level books.
> (All the books in my library are color coded by grade level.)  This had
> never occurred to me to do.  I am pretty sure the students at this school do
> not have much experience using the online catalog.  For our first class
> meeting next week, I had planned to discuss the rules and policies and then
> to allow small groups to go to the shelves to look for books.  I am curious
> what do you do in your library?  Do you pull books and put them on a cart to
> allow the students to look through?  Or do they go to the shelves to find
> what they want?
>
> Right now there are no shelf markers at my school.  So the second week of
> school I plan to start training the students on how to use shelf markers.
> In another lesson I will teach them about the dewey system and then I plan
> to teach them to use the online catalog.  I feel like it is important for
> the students to be allowed to "browse the shelves."  I don't want to limit
> their choices.  At the same time, I am very pressed for time.  Students come
> to the library for about 30 min. per week on a fixed schedule.
>
> Thanks so much for your help!
> Amy Marquez
> Librarian
> North San Juan Elementary
> San Juan, TX
> amarquez@psja.k12.tx.us
>
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-- 
Anne-Marie Gordon, NBCT
Library Media Specialist
Livonia Primary Library
Livonia, NY
agordon@livoniacsd.org
media.teatime@googlemail.com
Resources wiki:squareone.pbwiki.com
Webpage: http://classrooms.livoniacsd.org/agordon/
Blog: repurpose.edublogs.org

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