More book swap ideas....
We have done a book swap for the past 2 years. We do it in conjunction with
a local literacy charity here called Better Basics (who work to put books in
the hands of children, among other things). We asked that each student
bring in 2 books. They would then get to "shop" and take home ONE book.
The other book would go to Better Basics. We make sure that the students
know that no matter how many books they bring in, they only take home one,
but we stress that by bringing in lots of books, they are helping out less
fortunate children.
No, not every child brought in a book. But if their class donated what
amounted to 2 books per child, then each child in that class got to shop for
a book. (Does that make sense- if one child from a class of 22 students
brought in 44 books, then the entire class would get to shop. Of course
that didn't happen but I'm just trying to make the numbers work :-)) We did
have quite a few students who brought in more than 2 books. It all evened
out, and we made sure the class was aware if they had an extra generous
classmate who might have taken up their slack (but no names were mentioned
and we did not try to make the non-donating children feel bad at all). More
of a "somebody did something nice for you, now you go do something nice for
someone else" philosophy.
We did go through the donations before putting them out (just to make sure
everything was appropriate for our students).
Make sure the students ask their parents permission before bringing in any
books (we had one student who raided a sibling's room and brought in all
their books!!!)
We did set the books out on tables- alphabetically by author (but probably
not to Dewey standards!) We labeled the tables something like A-E, F-K, etc.
A representative from Better Basics met us at the end of the week and took
all the extra books. If you are not doing this with a charity, hopefully
you won't have too many books left over to deal with.
Hope this helps! Good luck. Our students LOVE this!
Leslie Sharbel
Vestavia Hills Elementary Central (grades 4-5)
Birmingham, AL
sharbelle@vestavia.k12.al.us
or lsharbel@charter.net
--------------
I got the idea from a magazine article some time ago. A book swap is
very easy since no money is involved. I have had about 7 of them.
The main thing is to have the oldest students swap first so that
there is something for them! The other advice is to have extra books
(I go to yard sales, goodwill, save donations that I don't want to
barcode or have too many copies...) so that the last person in the
door doesn't have to take the last book. I also have to toss a few
donations in the trash so the extra books come in handy to fill in
the gaps. I always get lots of PreK-2 books so I try to get extras in
the 3-5 level.
I have a school of less than 300 and a book swap can be done in a
morning. Of course, not everyone participated. When I received the
books in the bags (which we decorated or at least labeled in class),
I required the permission slips to be right in the bags. Then I
sorted all received bags into grade level groups and had then read to
pass out as kids came in the door. I usually had about 100
participants in K-5.
Here is my info. Feel free to modify. See two attachments. If you
have any questions, e-mail me.
D. J. Hendrickson
dhendrickson07@atlanticbb.net
------------------
My idea of a book swap is if you bring one you get one. If you bring ten you get
ten. Sounds like you have something different in mind.
I have done a book swap a few times but I was frustrated by a few things.
Some kids bought in books that were too low or two high for other kids to want.
Some books come in damaged and I had to make a decision if they could swap it or
not. These kids are my friends and I hate to disappoint them.
Karen DeFrank, LMS
Dorothy L. Bullock Elementary School
Glassboro Intermediate School
Glassboro NJ
k d e f r a n k @ g l a s s b o r o s c h o o l s . u s
Becky Henderson, MLS
Gardner Elementary School LMC
218 E. Shawnee
Gardner, KS 66030
hendersonb@usd231.com
(913)856-3341
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