[LM_NET] SHARE: Overdue books

[Susan Grigsby <susan.grigsby@GMAIL.COM>]

I thought I'd weigh in with another activity I did with little borrowers at
the beginning of the school year. When they came for the first visit I told
them all about where books "live" in the library - that each section was
like a neighborhoodm, each book had a special address, and we never wanted a
book to be sad because it was lost and couldn't be near its neighbors. Then
I told them this: "There are only 3 places in the *entire universe* where
your (insert school name here) book should ever be once it is checked out of
our library."
1) Your bookbag
2) Your desk
3) Your hands
Then we chanted "bookbag, desk, or hands" over and over - I'd dance around
to the rhythm of the chant, raise my hands for them to chant louder, lower
my hands to chant softly...whatever it took to help them memorize it.
Throughout the year when overdue notices would start to go out I would talk
to each delinquent borrower and ask if they remembered the 3 places in the
universe (they would) and then we'd talk about where else their book might
have "moved."
It didn't completely eliminate overdues but it did set them up to think of
library books as special things that needed special care because there were
only 3 places in the entire universe good enough for them!

-- 
Susan Grigsby, Teacher-Librarian
President, GLMA
Elkins Pointe Middle School
Roswell, Georgia
susan.grigsby@gmail.com
We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the
life that is waiting for us.  — Joseph Campbell

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