Valentine's Day Resources

Valentine's Day is coming up!  Are you celebrating in a special way?

I usually make a display using these Valentine's signs I made a few years ago. 

I've also done a "Blind Date" with a book display for my fourth and fifth graders to encourage them to try something new.  You can read about it HERE.

 You can download them for FREE in my TpT store by clicking HERE.

I also like to put out bookmarks for my students.  This pack of 4 free bookmarks includes 2 different colored bookmarks and 2 different black and white bookmarks for your students to color.  Click HERE to download this freebie.

Or you might want the bigger pack which includes 20 bookmarks- 12 colored and 8 black and white bookmarks for your students to color.  Click HERE to view this product in my TpT store.

I have used these bookmarks  to go with our Valentine Grams purchased at our Book Fair.  You can read more about Valentine Grams HERE.

You can get a copy of the Valentine Gram letter HERE.  You can download it and save it by clicking on the down arrow in the top right corner of the screen.  No need to ask for sharing rights.  =)

Want to see more ideas?  Click on the picture above or click HERE to follow me on Instagram to see all the fun happening in our Media Center!

Valentine's Goodies

Our Book Fair wrapped up last week and it was a big success.  It was the most successful spring book fair we've ever had. I'm not sure what I did differently this time around.  Maybe it wasn't anything I did. Perhaps it's a sign that the economy is really turning around.

Something I've done at every spring book fair is Valentine Grams.  Parents and grandparents can purchase a book on the sly at the book fair, either by dropping by or by sending in their payment and book choice in a sealed envelope.  You can get a copy of the Valentine Gram letter I send home by clicking HERE.

Then I wrap up the book along with a goodie or two which usually includes a piece of candy, a pencil, and a bookmark.  Then on Valentine's Day, I deliver the Valentine Grams.  We had about 40 Valentine Grams this year.  I forgot to snap a picture of the Valentine Grams from this year, but you can see from the pictures above what they looked like in years past.

The bookmarks I put in the Valentine Grams come from my Valentine bookmark packs.

Click HERE to check out this pack of four FREE bookmarks.

Click HERE to check out this pack of 20 bookmarks.

The kids really love them.

Since I was delivering Valentines, it got me in a festive mood.  So I put on my Valentine Jamberry nailwraps.  I don't normally wear jams on all of my fingers because I am super hard on my nails, but these were really cute.

After a week, this is what they looked like.  There was a little wear on the tips, but overall, they still looked pretty good.  I think the foil backing helped.

The jams that are plastic don't wear quite as well on my fingers, as seen in the picture above. This was after a week of  lessons, no parent volunteers and lots of  reshelving of books.  Still, I like the look so I will probably keep wearing them, at least on a couple of nails at a time.  If you liked to check them out, click HERE to go to Jamberry's website.

To keep up the Valentine spirit, I did a fun "Blind Date" lesson with the fourth grade classes. I started off the lesson with a short 6 question quiz to help them discover their perfect genre. I found the quiz on Mrs. Reader Pants' blog.  You can get a copy of it HERE.  Then I book talked several different books in each of the genres and invited them to pick a book within their newly discovered "perfect match" genre.

To make it more interesting, I wrapped some books in bulletin board paper and labeled them with only the book's genre, reading level, and the barcode.  The only stipulations were that they couldn't unwrap the book until they got back to their classroom and they had to keep the book for at least one day.

 I called it a Blind Date.  I got the idea from THIS pin on Pinterest.  All but 2 students ended up being pleased with their choices.

I made some fun signs to decorate the shelves.  You can snag 'em HERE for free.

So that was my Valentine's Week.  How was your?

Sweet on Bookmarks

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, which means it's time for some sweet bookmarks!

You can get a set of 4 free Valentine bookmarks HERE.  2 are color and 2 are black and white for your kiddos to color.

And I also have a set of 20 for $2.00. This set included 12 color and 8 black and white for your friends to color. You can get them HERE. 

I am using these fun bookmarks in my Valentine Grams that I sell at the Book Fair this week.  You can get a copy of the form here.

Hope you enjoy and Happy Valentine's Day!

Book Fair Fiesta

The Book Fair has arrived and with a bit of effort, it has been set up and is ready for the first shoppers.

I was very lucky to have gotten the Book Fair delivered before the bad weather hit my area.  A couple of other Media Specialists who were scheduled to have their Book Fair delivered on the same day just missed their delivery by a few hours because the roads were getting too slick for the truck to get through.

While this saved me some stress of having to reschedule, I still had to make plans to get to my school and get set up, all while everyone was supposed to be on a snow day because the roads were still very slick. Luckily I was able to make it to my school safely and get things set up in about 6 hours.

I even had help from a teacher at my school who also braved the roads to check on her class pets.

This is my seventh Book Fair, so I have things pretty well down pat by now, learning what to do and what not to do from past Book Fairs.

Like:

1) Schedule the Book Fair from Friday to Friday to ensure that it will be delivered in time to do a Preview Day the Friday before.  (Thanks to Mrs. ReaderPants for this tip, and many others.  You can read her tips here.)

2)  Attend a Book Fair workshop.  You not only get some great ideas for your Book Fair, but you also earn 25 Scholastic dollars.

3)  Do as much as you can before-hand.  Make copies of Book Fair letters, print posters and make decorations....whatever you can do ahead of time, do it.

4)  Recruit volunteers.  You can do it on your own, but it is so much easier with help, especially when it comes to decorating, setting up, and taking down the fair.

5)  Thank volunteers. If you want them to come back, be sure to thank your volunteers in some way...like $5 in free books from the Book Fair or some other small thank you gift.  Showing your appreciation is not only the polite and right thing to do, but it will ensure that you have ready volunteers in the future.

6)  Plan some type of family event.  We do a family event at night so that parents who can't come during the day can visit/shop.  We are planning a STEM night for this Book Fair.  We did the same kind of thing in November and it was a big hit.  The kids loved having something to take home with them and parents were in a good mood to shop afterwards because their kids were happy.  It's a win-win!

7)  Promote!  Promote!  Promote!  Hang posters a few weeks before. Talk it up to your classes that come through the Media Center to build up excitement.  Make announcements in the morning.  You could even have students do some type of skit if you have video announcements.  Send home notes. I even do a calling post that goes out to all the families in our school telling about the Book Fair and the family event.  It really does make a difference.

Source

8)  Purchase the Book Fair thematic decorating kit.  It is worth your sanity to spend the $49.95.  Plus it would cost much more to buy those items at a party store, not to mention the time it would take to track down those items.

9)  Hang up the poster string (if you display posters that way) before setting anything up.  It is much easier to get the ladder where you need it to be when Book Fair shelves are not in the way.

10) Put smaller items and books that come with other items up front to make it easy to keep an eye on those items that might otherwise "disappear."

11)  If your school is an AR school, label books with AR levels and points the day before your preview.  This helps students and parents find appropriate books and might save you some time during the fair of having to look it up.  You can do this using AR BookFinder or the new Scholastic Book Fair app.  It is available both on iTunes and Google Play for Android devices.  I did find that the Book Fair app didn't always work.   That might be an issue that can be fixed with an update.  It is a pretty cool app when it works and shoppers can download the app, too, for their use.

12)  Get plenty of rest before the Book Fair starts.  You will need it!

The theme for this Book Fair is Book Fair Fiesa.

When I taught first grade...years ago...we had a unit on Mexico, so I pulled out some of my ideas from that unit for decorations and made the doors look like pinatas.

Here's the classroom wishlist board.

And here's the "Doodad" board. Thanks to Jennifer Underhill of the Three Ring Library blog for this idea.  I've used it for 4 Book Fairs now and it has been so helpful.

Source

The spring Book Fair decorating kit (2014) comes with a serape and a double side photo prop.  I found a free app called BoothStache to take pictures of students with fun mustaches behind the photo prop or they could wear the serape.  How fun is that?

I will also be doing Valentine Grams again this year.  This is an idea that has been used by many Media Specialists in my county. You can get a copy of the form here.  Parents and grandparents buy a book from the Book Fair on the sly and fill out a special note to go with the book.  I wrap it up and deliver it with a special treat on Valentine's Day.  So fun!

I love Book Fair week, especially how it makes the Media Center smell.  Ahhh!  Someone should bottle that smell and sell it as air freshener.  Anyway, that's how our Book Fair fiesta is going down.

Do you have any Book Fair tips to share?