Diving Into Some Books!

So, I'm all set up and ready to go for our school's very first Buy One, Get One Scholastic Book Fair!  Since I have my first one from the Fall under my belt, I feel a lot more confident with this one!  Our past week of practicing matching the money amounts went so great!  My K and 1 students were more or less matching numbers, while my older ones were having fun running around the library on a scavenger hunt to find those same numbers to match up!  All in all, it was a success on all levels, and as I told my older ones (when I got the "do we have to do it?" comments), it was good practice for the coming week.  As soon as they started it, they had a lot of fun and I got a lot of "awws"  when I told them they had to stop for checkout. (You can see my earlier post about the "matching" game).

So, after my things were delivered on Tuesday, and I felt I had the utmost strength in NOT going through every box like it was Christmas, I had the idea to set up on Thursday afternoon to do a preview day on Friday.  The flyers that are sent home for the BOGO fair are small and not very detailed, and this way I figured the students could see what was here to buy.  After getting the blessing of my resource team, our Preview Day went really well (and I might do it for the Fall fair from now on) as each class got a "walking preview" of the Fair ("looking with our eyes, not our hands") either at the beginning of Resource or the end of their Resource time.  It also helped build excitement for the Fair with the kids.  My students, after their walk thru, were in our Story Room where we did our lesson on "fractured fairy tales" (Mo Willems style) to keep them engaged.

I wanted to do a theme this time and decided on "Diving Into Reading", where students created different sea creature crafts.  Fortunately for me, our Spring Break was at the perfect time so I could come in and decorate.  This past week, the kids really had some positive comments about how the library was decorated with their artwork!  I'm glad they got to see it before the cases and things were put up.

So, today, the Fair officially starts and I have a feeling I'll have kids outside the door for "Open Library Time" with eyes wide and money in hand!  Good thing I have my library helpers this time around (and I will definitely start that program earlier next year!).  My helpers (4th and 5th graders) are helping with little ones finding books as well as working "security" to make sure nothing gets pocketed without getting paid for!  They are most excited!

I also created gift certificates with an ocean theme for those of our students (nominated by staff) who might not have money to come to the fair and purchase a book.  These are ready to go and in envelopes in the teachers' mailboxes!

So of course I took pictures of the grand display today (before little hands start scavenging thru!) that I thought I'd share!  My fingers are crossed that this fair will go smoothly and each child will end up with at least one book to take home!