Hosting a School Literacy Night

Last night we held our 2nd annual literacy night at the library with one of our schools.  These are always great fun and we have a couple of schools that we currently do them with.  As we were setting up, Julie, one of my awesome School Outreach Librarians, said that we should post this online somewhere as we have become pros at putting them together.  I love them from a manager's perspective as they are inexpensive and bring whole families into the library.  Here is this year's plan:

Setting Up a Lit Night
Start early, especially if they want one in March as a part of "March is Reading Month".  Our calendar does fill up quickly so we are definitely booking our literacy nights by late fall.  Plus, that way we can work our schedule and our programming around the literacy night.  We start by asking the principals.  If you don't have a relationship with your targeted principal and get no response, try either a teacher or their PTO.  For one of our schools, we host a kindergarten only literacy night.  They also have 4 kindergartens at that school so we easily pull in 100+ people on those nights.

Once a school is on board, they will promote the program for you.  Some schools will give extra credit for attending since it is a part of "March is Reading Month".  They will put it on their take-home calendars, their Facebook pages, and some will even create special flyers.

Your job is to book your space.  We prefer to host them in our children's room, but at our branches, we need to hold the program mostly in the meeting rooms due to space (such as in the case below).  We set our program up as stations so parents can come and go during the 2-hour block, depending on when they get home from work, eat dinner, etc.  There is some prep work in getting the stations ready.  While our stations are mostly focused on literacy, we do throw in some STEAM.

Our Stations
As people enter the room, we set up any drawings that we have going on.  Sometimes it is a "Guess How Many Legos" container, while other times they need to just write their name on a slip.  This year we gave away extra summer reading books in bookbags that we had leftover.

Our next station was a Pout-Pout Fish reader's theater.  Kids had to make their headbands, then act out the words.  We used sentence strips to make the headbands and glued fish die cuts to them.

We have been using The Day the Crayons Quit a lot in outreach this spring. Some of our outreach adventures have involved a craft so we had bulk ordered a bunch of chunky crayons.  You can make your own crayon guy to go with the story by adding googly eyes to the crayon.  Kids then wrote a letter or draw a picture as to why their crayon shouldn't quit.

 
Our fourth station was an engineering challenge.  We cut pool noodles into 1-inch pieces and kids built with the noodles and toothpicks.  This station also had some older kid appeal.

Have you ever played Race to 100?  This is a math game using dice that also has older kid appeal.

  

To get the families out in the library, we had a scavenger hunt for children's book characters.  We like to use characters because it gets kids talking about books.  As kids finished the hunt, they got a CMPL pencil.

Our last station was out in the children's area.  Kids made books based on Press Here by Tullet.  They folded 2 pieces of paper in half to make their book.  Then they chose a new verb out of our container for each page and added both words and dots.

While this wasn't part of our original plan, it definitely will be in the future!  The school asked if we had a place to hang artwork since parents would be attending with their children.  We have racks that we moved over to this location and they brought their artwork to display.  It was very eye-catching. 

This is what we did this time around for our literacy night.  It was an Amy and Julie production (my 2 School Outreach Librarians) and I just went along as an extra set of hands.  If you haven't done one before, it is totally worth it! 

Flannel Friday-Pete's Back

We have a great relationship going this summer with our local Parks & Rec department (yay Julie for organizing!) and are doing a lot of neat outreach events out in the community this summer.  Next week we will be doing story time in the park.  There is a good possibility of there being 150+ people there, which means that we began to rethink how we will be sharing picture books with a large crowd.  We are pulling out puppets, props, and our newly painted Pete the Cat prop boards.

This is Pete the Cat painted on a large foam board with acrylic paints.  The buttons all have velcro so we can tell the story of Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin and have the buttons pop off.  Of course,  you need a way to see his belly button so we made a 2nd board.

While we will still be using the book to tell the story, these boards will help illustrate the actions to the crowd.

Kelly at Ms. Kelly at the Library is hosting this week's Flannel Friday round-up.

If you want to know more about Flannel Friday:

• Check out the official Flannel Friday blog that includes schedules and other important information.
• Search for images and links on our Pinterest page.
• Discuss story time stuff (and other ys stuff) on the Flannel Friday Facebook page.
• Follow #flannelstorytime on Twitter.

   

Kindergarten Literacy Night

One of my big goals for our department is to develop a better relationship with our local schools.  Being a newer library system is hard as most of our schools are used to doing their own thing.  It takes extra effort to start new relationships and build them into a successful partnership.  Plus, we have 45 or so schools over multiple districts.  My philosophy is that any time a school contacts us for a program or a tour and we can do it, we do.  When I got a call from one of our local schools last Thursday asking us to host a Kindergarten Literacy Night to celebrate March is Reading Month for 60-100 kids and their entourages tonight, of course I agreed.  I did a little freak out on Twitter, then I got to work figuring out what I could do with the time and staff I had.  

As kids came into the room with their families, we had them gather right in the middle of the department.  This was really the only space to hold a group that size without moving a lot of furniture.  I started off with a rhyme.

Five little pigeons flying around my door.

One flew away, and then there were four.

Four little pigeons sitting in a tree.

One flew away and then there were three.

Three little pigeons didn't know what to do.

One flew away, and then there were two.

Two little pigeons sitting in the sun.

One flew away, and then there was one.

One little pigeon sitting all alone.

She flew away, and then there were none.

But later on that very same day...

Five little pigeons came back to play!

Okay, I will admit that rhyme used to be about birds, but pigeons fits it well.  The flannelboard parts are based on a post from Piper Loves the Library.  Kindergartners do great with countdown rhymes.  Many of them were trying to outdo each other shouting out how many were left.

Next up, we read our story.  Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems is one of my favorites.  It allows you, as the reader, to really get into the telling of it.  Plus, it works great with this age group.  The kids had so much fun yelling out "NO" on almost every page.

After the story, I asked the group who had been to a library before.  Then, I asked who had been to this library before.  I like to ask the kids what kinds of things we have at the library.  Then, I pull out my bin with 1-2 items from each collection and show them off.  I often hear a lot of "I didn't know they had that."

Next up was our activity portion of the night.  For this we moved to our Activity Room.  Unfortunately, this room was not built for 60-100 kids so next year I will bring tables out to the main part of the children's area and run the activities out there.  Since I had no time for craft assembly, I raided the Pigeon Presents site.  I set up 4 stations for the kids.

Station 1-Coloring page

Station 2-Drawing/Coloring page

Station 3-Drawing/Coloring page from a previous writing center

 Station 4-Should The Pigeon drive the bus?  Vote here.

One board was for yes and one was for no.

To make it a little extra fun, because many kids love to display their work, I had one of our staff members make a giant Pigeon for our bulletin board.  While she wasn't so thrilled that she had to do crafts, it turned out great!  We took submissions from station 3 and hung them on the bulletin board.  That way as kids come back over the month, they can see their work.

The 4 Kindergarten teachers, along with the school principal, all attended the program.  In fact, the teachers encouraged it by advertising and running a drawing for free books.  They brought enough prizes along so every kid left with something. 

As parents left the Activity Room, we had folders for them to pick up that included a library calendar, brochure for BookFlix, a winter reading gameboard, and a Kindergarten booklist.

 

So how did it go?

Despite the short notice, the night went over well.  It was unfortunately the only Wednesday during the month of March that we had staff who could run the program.  It is hard to have a highly attended night when you hit church holidays, such as Ash Wednesday.  We expected 60-100 kids (100 being the absolute max) and ended up with 60.  Each kid brought at least 1 parent and many brought both along with siblings.  I think if we were able to shift the night next year, it would be better attended.

Like I said before, I would bring up tables from our auditorium and run the activities right out in the children's room next year.  While I could set up and lock our Activity Room ahead of time, by having to shift kids and families, we lost some in the move.  Also, it was really squishy.

As an added bonus that I didn't even think of, it was one of our PAWS for Reading nights where we bring in a trained therapy dog for kids to read to.  Since we target Kindergarten-2nd graders for this program, we were able to advertise it while everybody was at the library.  Many of them stopped by to meet or read to the dog.

Would I do it all again?  You bet!  Now that I have had one successful Literacy Night under my belt, I am hoping that we can schedule more next year!

It's a Preschool Fair

For the past couple of years, my library hosts a Preschool Fair at the Main Library.  With the big change in jobs this past fall, this now became one of my tasks.  Now that I have been through it, a Preschool Fair is actually a neat idea, promotes school involvement, and is inexpensive to do.  Here's how I did it:

October
Start early!  I sent out a letter to every preschool in our two townships, everybody who participated last year, and schools who have expressed interest at the beginning of October.  The letter introduced what we were trying to accomplish (showcasing local preschools) and gave a deadline to respond by.  I also included my email address as many of the schools had not met me before and I am working on building a relationship with them.

December
My deadline for a Preschool Fair on January 25 was Thanksgiving weekend.  Yes, I know that seems like a lot of time, but I then needed to track down those who didn't respond.  Plus, we all know what school schedules are like over the holiday break-you can't reach anyone.  I always started with a phone call.  When that didn't get a response, I sent the preschool teacher and principal at each of the schools an email with a new "must respond by" date.

Your phone will also become really popular once notice of your event goes out.  Our winter newsletter hit homes in mid-December and all of a sudden I had 5 more schools who wanted to participate.

January
Two weeks before our fair, I started to get serious.  This is when I printed our booklet that includes each school, contact information, and blank space for parents to make notes.  These all needed to be folded and stapled.  I had our subs stuff YS folders with our February Events calendar, winter reading form, Bookflix brochure, story time schedule, 100 Books to Read Before Kindergarten booklist, and a Sesame Street growth chart that we had leftover from some giveaway.  Every time we finished assembling something, we put it in a box and labelled it so it would be easily transported and unpacked downstairs.

I decided that we needed something fun for kids to do at our table also, so I came up with a quick craft.  My idea of a craft tends to be a die cut on a popsicle stick so we ended up with teddy bear puppets.  The sticks all had a glue dot put on ahead of time so kids (or parents) just had to peel the wrapper and stick the stick to the die cut when they were finished coloring.

The Day of the Fair
I picked up bottled water on my way in for the school representatives and was at the library by 8:30.  We loaded our boxes up on carts and moved them downstairs to our auditorium.  Our library opens at 9 a.m. and there were schools already outside waiting to come in.  Schools had one hour to set up before the fair opened at 10.  Our fair ran from 10-noon.

We set up a library table in the hall.  As people came in, they picked up a free book for their child (leftover from a grant), a package of CMPL crayons, a booklet listing the schools, our folder filled with events and information.  They could also enter a drawing.

our table 

 book choices

crayons

Our craft table was right next to our first table out in the hall.  Many time, while parents filled out their drawing entry, kids would color their puppet.

Our prize drawing happened as a result of me cleaning out our supply closet.  We had a lot of spare tote bags, backpacks, puzzles, books, and placemats leftover from previous drawings and giveaways.

You may wonder about expenses.  I will be honest-the only expenses that I ever usually see are those that come directly out of my program budget.  The cost of this year's fair was $6 to buy 48 bottles of water for the participants.  That is it!  Places where you could add/delete expenses are:

• Letters to the schools could be emailed.
• You don't need prizes.  If you think you do, check out leftover summer reading prizes or things cluttering up your closets.
• Crafts-simple is good.  Even something like a coloring sheet would have been welcome today.
• You don't need to pass out free books or crayons.  The only reason we did is that we had them from another event.

How did it go today?  Start by remembering the my library is in Michigan, home to the second Polar Vortex.  At the beginning of the fair, we had a blizzard and it was -3.  We still had 71 adults and 42 kids who came out to check out our 20 local schools.  Not all of our schools were in our service area, but those that weren't, were in the next city.  Parents were really excited to check out the local schools and many came out with a glazed eye look (but plenty of information to go through at home).  Schools were really excited to participate, because not only were they showing off to prospective parents, but they got to check out the competition.  Plus, I know that I end up with good ideas, by checking out the displays.  For example, today's good idea is that if you don't have a library tableskirt for an event, use a parachute.  It looks great!

Now Onto Next Year
I will admit that I am an idea person so I already have notes on things to expand or delete for next year.  Plus, I did send out a survey to all of our participants asking about the date, timing, and other issues.

My big thing for next year (if our millage passes) is to make the library table look as professional as the tables in the actual fair.  I would like a tableskirt and/or these cool display things that I saw at one of the tables (personally, I would like both).

 This sign works like an upside down shade.

I would also like to add a bigger children's component to the day, if not to the actual fair.  We are looking to set up a 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program and I am thinking that it would be awesome to kick it off on the same day as the Preschool Fair.  Plus, then I have justification to have a costumed character walking around.

School Visits Rock!

This past week a colleague and I had the opportunity to take part in a Literacy Night at one of our local elementary schools.  Whoever came up with the idea really did a good job and I would love it if other schools did something similar.  It was run similar to a school carnival night with stations that ran for 10 minutes.  Other stations included a couple of games, the school book fair, and the cafeteria with cotton candy and drinks.  The library had one station all to ourselves.  In addition, kids were given a passport that needed to be initialed at each station.  If they participated in at least three activities, they could enter their passport into a drawing for various gift baskets.

With 10 minutes of time, what can you do?  We did this as a team so one person wasn't running around like crazy.  One of us set up a table with library card applications, bookmarks, crayons, various handouts (databases, what the library offers, etc.)  The other one of us sat in a chair and read books.  Thanks to the awesome people at Flannel Friday, I had a really good collection of books to read aloud.

Awesome School Read-Aloud Booklist

• Miss Nelson is Missing! by Harry Allard
• The Princess and the Pig by Jonathan Emmett
• Bark, George by Jules Feiffer
• Perfect Square by Michael Hall
• The End by David LaRochelle
• Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin (it's just not cool if you don't bring Pete the Cat)
• Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
• Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner (only good if you add in a Mexican accent!)
• Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka (read a chapter at a time)
• The True Story of the Three Little Pigs! by Jon Scieszka
• A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
• Duck on a Bike by David Shannon
• I'm A Shark by Bob Shea
• Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox

The highlights of the night were definitely Bark, George and I'm a Shark.  As I finished up one book, I would let a kid pick the next book to read.


What I would change:
If we do this again, we need something cool to get people in the door.  Yes, they have stations to visit, but it seemed like people got "lost" in the halls or would stop in really quick.  While we know that the library is cool, not everybody does.  I am thinking that a costumed character or our summer reading prize wheel would have been good hooks to get people in the door. 

The other interesting thing is that we got great crowds when someone was reading.  Even the big kids would cluster in and sit in the back.  The problem is that when the announcement came to switch rooms, everyone left and we would have an empty room.  It is hard reading to an empty room, even if you know that is what will draw people in.  We almost needed to plant a kid in there to sit for the whole night while read.