Festive Freebies

Just a quick post about a new freebie I created for December.  This freebie includes activity sheets for the books How Santa Got His Job by Stephen Krensky, Turkey Claus by Wendi Silvano, and Santa Retires by David Biedrycki.  Use them to teach story elements to your littles.

Grab this freebie HERE from my TpT store.

How to Be a Successful Reader Freebie

 Hello friends!

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I am back with another great freebie for you!  I have been reading some PD books and those got me to thinking about talking with students about what being a reader means to them. That led to this freebie for you!

This freebie includes a PowerPoint to lead the discussion about being a reader in 5 easy steps.  

It also includes an editable bookmark with these steps listed.

You can download this freebie HERE in my TpT store.  If you enjoy this freebie, please consider leaving me feedback on TpT. This encourages me to continue making great products that you find helpful.

Reading Freebie

 I'm back with another freebie.  This is fun to do with the littles.  First read the books The Best Place to Read by Debbie Bertram and Susan Bloom and Bears Make the Best Reading Buddies by Carmen Oliver.

You can show the PowerPoints included in the freebie to talk about story elements.  

Then have the students color their favorite place to read or their favorite buddy to read with.

You can download this freebie which includes both PowerPoints as well as both worksheets HERE in my TpT store.

Hope you enjoy!

Note Taking Skills

 I finally got around to uploading a note taking skills lesson for grades 3-5, with different topics for research and note taking.  This is the perfect wrap up to the reference unit which you can find HERE.

This is a freebie.  I hope you find it helpful!

April is School Library Month

April is School Library Month. There are so many ways you can celebrate this month, even from home.  

First, visit the AASL and download free banners and signs you can use on all of your social media accounts.  There are several versions of this year's banners and signs available as well as past years' themes.

Share a fact about school libraries once a week or every day on social media.  You can flip through this Google Slides presentation to see examples of facts you could share.

You can download my free advocacy pack with fact pages on it HERE.  I made this pack last year to go with the 2019 AASL SLM theme.  The theme this year is more generic, so I decided not to change the pack for this year.

In past years, I have made a display to put in the media center with the facts listed on it.  I put out the "I love my school library" sheets out in front of the display and had students write what they love about our library on them.  

I would hang up their responses on a bulletin board in the hallway.  I can't do that this year, but one way to digitize this would be to create a Google form for students to fill out. You could then put these responses into a Google Slide to share.

And speaking of Google Forms, the Georgia Library Media Association has created a fun Google Form you can fill out to celebrate National School Library Month.  The Google Form creates a Librarygram that will be sent to the school librarian of your choice.  You just need to know the name of the school or organization where that librarian works and their email address.  The Librarygram will be sent to them to brighten their day.

Here is the one I received just last week. It really made my day!

So how are you planning to celebrate School Library Month?

Let's Connect!

I've been blogging at The Book Bug for almost 9 years now, and you may have followed me since the beginning of my journey. Thank you for being a follower!

But did you know I am also on social media?  

You can connect with me HERE on facebook,  I also have a facebook page for my website, A Teacher's Bag of Tricks.  If you're interested, you can follow that facebook page HERE.

You can find me HERE on Instagram.  I actually try to post daily on Instagram, so you can really follow along to see what is happening day to day in our media center there.  Plus, I have lots of Instastories and Highlight videos of fun ideas.  I'd love for you to stop on by and check them out!

You can find me HERE on Twitter, although I don't tend to post much. I do participate in various Twitterchats, though.

I am also Pinterest and tend to post there frequently.  You can check out my boards HERE.

And if you'd like to keep up with my blog, you can follow me on Bloglovin' to get notified when I posted something new. 


Hope to connect with you soon!

P.S.  I just redesigned by signature line. What do you think?

Bundles of New Bundles

I have been working hard on creating some new bundles in my TpT store.  I have bundled several themes into super bundles to help you save on these awesome products.

Winter Themed Super Bundle

This bundle includes winter themed display signs, bookmarks and both the call number and shelf order centers.  Click HERE to view this bundle.

Valentine's Day Themed Super Bundle

This bundle includes Valentine's Day themed display signs, bookmarks, the Love to Read Month pack with display signs and centers, and both red and white call number and shelf order centers.  Click HERE to view this bundle.

St. Patrick's Day Themed Super Bundle

This bundle includes St. Patrick's Day themed display signs, bookmarks, both the call number and shelf order centers.  Click HERE to view this bundle.

Spring Themed Super Bundle

This bundle includes spring themed display signs and 4 different themed sets of bookmarks.  Click HERE to view this bundle.

Genre Super Bundle

And finally, the genre bundle (which is the most bang for your buck) is truly a SUPER bundle.  This bundle includes the Genre Mega Pack that includes posters, bookmarks, and secret symbols for 28 different genres.  It also includes the genre sort activity, both genre detective activities, and both the 2nd-3rd and 4th -6th Mystery genre intro and activity.   In addition, there are 2 FREE genre activities in a BONUS file!  This bundle is really SUPER!  Click HERE to view this bundle.

I hope you enjoy these new SUPER bundles!

St. Patrick's Day Resources

St. Patrick's Day is coming up, and I have created some resources for St. Patrick's Day that you might enjoy using in your library/media center.

If you need center ideas for St. Patrick's Day, this St. Patrick's Day call number sorting center may fit your needs.  Students practice sorting call numbers into their correct section: Easy (or Everyboday, Everyone), Fiction, or Nonfiction.  Click HERE to view this resource in my TpT store.

Or try this St. Patrick's Day themed shelf order center where students practice putting call number cards in correct shelf order.  This center pack includes cards for Easy (or Everybody/Everyone), Fiction, and Nonfiction.  You can view this resource HERE in my TpT store.

Both of these centers are available in a bundle at a reduced price. You can check them out HERE.

And if you're looking for a fun way to promote books during March, check out these fun St. Patrick's Day signs for your Library or Media Center.  You can view them HERE in my TpT store.

If you're looking for bookmarks, check out these free St. Patrick's Day bookmarks.  This product includes 2 different bookmarks- four to a page; one page is full color and one page is black and white for your students to color.  Click HERE to download this freebie from my TpT store.

If you want more bookmarks to choose from,  this product includes 32 bookmarks,  16 colored bookmarks and 16 black and white bookmarks for your students to color.  Click HERE to view this resource in my TpT store.

And I also have recently created a super bundle which includes the St. Patrick's Day themed display signs, bookmarks, and both the call number and shelf order centers. Check it out HERE.

I also have a story element freebie that goes with this book.  It is a Google doc freebie.  Click HERE to download it.  Once you have opened the Google doc, click on the white download arrow in the right hand corner to save and download the file.

If you'd like to try something a little different, this free story starter is a great writing activity for your littles.  It helps them organize their thoughts and then put their sentences in order to make an interesting story about catching a leprechaun.  You can download this freebie HERE in my TpT store.

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This story starter pairs well with the book Twas the Night Before St. Patrick's Day by Natasha Wing.  It's one of my favorite stories to read for St. Patrick's Day.  I have made some auras with Aurasma to go with this book to make it even more exciting to read.  If you'd like to use the auras I've created, just follow the Aurasma channel I used to create the auras.  To do that, after downloading the Aurasma app on your mobile device, click on or type in this link in a browser on your DEVICE and you will be able to follow the channel:  http://auras.ma/s/jDB4n

And if you are looking for St. Patrick's Day websites, check out these websites I saved in a Sqworl, one of my favorite bookmarking sites.  Click HERE to view the Sqworl.

One of my favorite websites on this Sqworl is the Leprechaun cam which is a live webcam feed in a field in Ireland.  I usually keep this website up on our ActivBoard the entire St. Patrick's Day so that students can keep watch for leprechauns.  Click HERE to go to the website.

Hope you find something fun you can use with your little leprechauns.