April: Earth Day Display

April 22nd was Earth Day and the library created two displays to highlight the libraries "Earth Day" inspired books.

The display was really quick to put together. After the last week celebrating National Library Week and all the events we held, there was not much time to put together a huge display. I created two signs for the displays, one for each book case. They are really simple:

I then cut out some clouds, butterflies and snails and decorated the bookcase with them:

That's all there was to it, please feel free to use the signs or template.

Crafts: Post-it Note Art

Post-it note art is something I have wanted to try for the past year. Ever since I first came across pictures of offices and libraries with post-it note art on their walls I thought it would make a wonderful project for our library. This year we decided to incorporate Post-it note art into National Library Week. There are several images available online that are basically ready to go. These images are mostly of old school video games like Mario Brothers and PacMan. Although they are really cool looking, I wanted images that related to the library. I was unable to find these ready made, so I created them myself.

I decided to make Harry Potter, Gandalf (Lord of the Rings) and Ironman (we have Ironman comic books). I didn't want to give the students the full design, it seemed too easy and they would be finished too quickly. Instead I separated the image into 10 images. This way ten students or ten teams of students could participate. Each team would just put up the colors that their image shows and the design will slowly be built as more and more colors get put up. We decided to give out prizes to the student who guessed what characters they were creating before the design was complete.

I made a grid on a large sheet of butcher paper. The grid is 3' high by 5.5' wide. I then drew in 3" x 3" squares (the Post-its we are using are the 3" x 3" kind). However, you could use the images below and go with a 2" x 2" post-it, just adjust your grid accordingly. I purchased all the post-its at Office Depot. I did have to manipulate the colors from the original colors of the images. You will see in the images provided that they show the post-it color not the original color so the students wouldn't get confused. (Light grey became light blue, royal blue became blue, Brown became orange, peach became pink) I was unable to find black post-it notes so I ended up just cutting out 3" x 3" squares from black construction paper  (black seemed too important to the design to replace with an alternative color).



Here are the 10 images:

 The Post-it Note art project was such a big hit that I put a second grid up. I didn't have time to create brand new images as I did above but if you search online you can find some old school video games like PacMan and Mario. I then brought the images into Photoshop and tweaked them to fit my grid and to make sure that there were no post-it's that needed to be cut like in the first images.I then just hung the photos up above the grid and handed the students stacks of post-its.

Please feel free to use the images to create your own post-it note art!

March: St. Patrick's Day Display

 St. Patrick's Day display:

 It's St.Patrick's Day and it's time to make the library pinch proof! Displays featuring all books in a single color are popular. I have seen several versions on Pinterest and various blogs with captions such as "I don't know the name but the cover was blue." St. Patrick's Day is the perfect time to pull all your green books and feature them in a display!

To liven up the display a bit I added some "gold coins." These are cute circle garlands in bright yellow. I cut the garland into several pieces and taped it behind and between books on the shelves. You can find the garland and similar items on Etsy at BaileyHadAParty

I then added paper shamrocks to the display. You can make these in several ways but what I found easiest was to cut out hearts. I then tapped together 3 or 4 hearts depending on if I wanted a three leaf or a four leaf clover. You could also take the 3d layered hearts that I used in the Blind Date with a Book display and put three or four of those hearts together to make an unique shamrock.

I would love to hear about your St. Patrick's Day displays!

February: Words Have Power Display (Black History Month)

February is Black History Month, we created two displays to spotlight famous African Americans and events in history. Our first display is titled "Words Have Power." I wanted to create a display that focused on biographies and famous speeches. We pulled all our biographies on famous African Americans and then we pulled books on famous speeches (We had a few Martin Luther King Jr. books with his speeches). To fill in the display we also added books on how to write speeches.

The signage for the display was simple. I took keywords that described the people spotlighted in the display. I used the following colors to write the words: red, green, black and yellow.I then cut them out and taped them around the display.

 For the display sign I just wrote out "Words Have Power" in the color scheme above.



 

Please feel free to use any of the signage for your own display!

February: Blind Date With A Book

Love is in the air and it's time to create a Valentine's Day display for the library. Last year I made a "Blind Date With a Book" display (all our displays stay up for a two week period).

I found many ideas on Pinterest and from other library blogs. Here are a few that I used to gain inspiration: http://littlethoughtsaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2012/02/blind-date-with-book.html
http://storytimewithmissmollie.blogspot.com/2012/06/display-blind-date-with-book.html
I will be repeating the display again this year, and I will provide images/details in a few weeks.

To begin my display I choose approx. thirty four books. Our display shelf holds approx. twenty six books, but I was hopeful that the students would check out several books and we would need to be prepared to replenish the display frequently. I kept track of the books I chose using an excel spreadsheet. (I wanted to be sure that I did not use the same books when I repeated the display in the years to come). I also used the spreadsheet to number the books, list the barcode for each book and to add notes about what genre/topics the books represented.

With the help of our parent volunteers, we pulled all the books for the display. I then created "Rate your date" slips to put inside each book. The students would rate the book and then turn in the slip for a raffle at the end of the two week period. 

We then wrapped each book using different types of wrapping paper. To keep track of which book was which after it was wrapped we used the spreadsheet. Since each book was already numbered on the spreadsheet we decided to draw a large number on each book after it was wrapped instead of placing a temporary barcode on the book (as others have chosen to do). When the students checked out a book they would not be able to use the self checkout computer, instead we made a sign out sheet that they could write their name and the number that was on the book.

 I saw many ideas on Pinterest to entice students to pick a book. Some wrote summaries of the book or gave hints on the topic/genre. We decided to use both "genre" hints as well as "similar" books. For example: if the book was about vampires we wrote "for Twilight lovers" on the tag.

 I then created signs using Photoshop (signage ideas came from Pinterest and other library blogs). One sign explained the Blind Date process, one assured students that they could check out the books (I highly recommend having one of these) and one just because:

Once all of that was done it was now time for the fun part of decorating the display shelves. 
I found a tutorial on Pinterest teaching me how to make the heart chains that I used on the shelves as added decor. Here is the link to Strumpet's Crumpets:  http://strumpetscrumpets.blogspot.be/2012/01/valentine-paper-heart-chain-diy.html

I added the heart chains to the shelves and I also cut out paper hearts in different shades of pink and red. I folded the hearts in half and taped one side down on the outside edge of the shelves. It made the hearts really pop out and look great.

Overall the display was a huge success and we had many students checking out books. The raffle was held at the end of the two weeks and one student won a box of See's candy. I can't wait to see how this years display turns out!

Please feel free to use any of the signage/slips!

January: Dear Diary Library Display

January is National Letter Writing Month. I wanted to create a display based on letters and process of writing letters. However, in our collection, we had a very limited amount of books on letters and letter writing. I discovered, while searching for letters, that we had several diaries in our collection. They were overlooked for most of our displays so I chose to create a "Dear Diary" display to encourage our students to write.

The display was extremely simple. I pulled all of our diaries and showcased them on the display. I also added a couple of books on the writing process. For signage I made up a couple of signs in Photoshop that said Dear Diary (I used different fonts for each sign). I cut out one sign and taped it to the top of the bookcase.

To make the display more interactive and exciting I created a round robin writing game. I typed up four writing prompts:

If you are reading this...
Once upon a time...
I wish....
At this very moment.....

Above each prompt I wrote directions on how to play the round robin game (each student writes one to two sentences, adding on to the story/what was written before them)

I cut out each prompt and glued them onto four pages on a yellow legal pad. I then put the legal pad on a clipboard and hung in on the wall adjacent to the library display. I created two signs directing the students to the clipboard.

I tried to encourage the first student to begin the story for each new prompt. Once a student had written a sentence or two other students caught on fast. Not every prompt was successful, but we got a few good length stories out of the game! I was surprised at how many students stopped to look at the diaries. Another successful display!