As part of my 9th grade orientation, I used to try to get a feel for
what incoming students read for enjoyment and initiate a discussion
about who's reading what. After the usual library tour, I seated
freshman classes at tables and handed out scissors,
brown/orange/red/yellow construction paper and maple/birch/oak leaf
templates I had made with manila stock. The theme was FALL INTO A GOOD
BOOK, and students would trace and cut out a leaf and write their name
on one side, and the title of their all-time favorite book on the other.
I dangled the leaves by threads hanging from straight pins stuck in my
ceiling tiles over the fiction section, where they would flutter
colorfully and hopefully attract students to investigate and check out
favorite titles. In searching for "their" leaf, they would read a lot
of classmate-recommended titles, and sometimes actually check them out!
I also got ideas for ordering to beef up my fiction section.
Orientation got a little later as I got older <grin>, so one October I
changed my tracing templates to bats and handed out black construction
paper and white chalk. Theme: GET BATTY ABOUT BOOKS. Same name +
favorite book idea.
I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I got older, and orientation got
later, and my bats turned into turkeys: GOBBLE UP A GOOD BOOK.
I'm even older now, and in more recent years, students cut out a
snowflake, leaving the center relatively intact. On one side of the
middle they'd write their names, and on the other, the name of their
all-time favorite book. I put up posters that said DON'T BE A FLAKE!
READ!!! The flakes swayed merrily with the air currents, creating a
dizzying display of titles popular with freshmen, and one that could be
left up for months!
You will be happy to hear that I've reached my ethical limit and refuse
to start thinking of a theme for spring library orientation! (Besides,
I'm retiring this year.) But the snowflake thread made me remember the
weeks spent picking little paper slivers out of the carpet, a small
price to pay for getting to know new students and stimulating
discussions about reading for FUN.
Bonnie
___________________ ___________________
|| \/
||
|| Bonnie | Fulmer, Librarian
||
|| Spackenkill | High School
||
|| 112 Spackenkill | Road
||
|| Poughkeepsie, | NY 12603 ||
|| voice: | (845) 463-7810
||
|| fax: | (845) 463-7817
||
|| Bonnie.Fulmer@spackenkillschools.org ||
||____________________/\___________________ ||
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