Put on your witch hat, carve some pumpkins, and get ready for Halloween! Every Halloween, I put on a special Halloween storytime for my youngest patrons to get them excited for the spookiest season of the year. Here are some books that I think will get your youngest patrons in the Halloween spirit!
From Frustrated to Delighted: Analog and STEM programming
In 2015, I was working as a Children’s Librarian at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania). I had to produce and present a summer reading program with iPads for school age kids. This was part of a pilot program that summer to introduce children, especially inner city children, to iPads as a way to decrease the digital divide. STEM programming on an iPad? I had no idea what to do. I didn’t even own a smart phone!
Program Documentation: Pro Tips
The perfect program. It’s an elusive library goal. Sometimes we get pretty darn close. But time, turnover, and transitions often mean losing details for those wonderful programs. How can we save and share our wins? Using our Family Place initiatives, I’m going to share the program documentation decisions that built our success.
Civic Engagement as Everyday Advocacy
One librarian finds fruitful partnerships with a state agency focused on creating supportive communities for families and children.
Reading More Children’s Books
So many books, so little time! As a youth librarian doing tons of reader advisory, I want to read more of the books in our collection. Librarians know what is popular with kids, but avid readers have already read all of those. I want to be able to recommend books to everyone who comes in and I feel like I need to read more children’s books to successfully do that. I started this journey by reading some physical copies and listening to some audiobooks. Peeking through the new books and reading their summaries and their professional reviews is a great place to start. Reading a few chapters and diving into the stories we purchase for our patrons is even more helpful. I don’t do all of the ordering for our library system and don’t always know what books are coming in. If a child asks for a book about magic,…
Successfully Reaching Out to Families
As Family Engagement Specialist for my library system, I spend a lot of time considering how best to keep families notified of upcoming events.
Ready Ideas for Ready to Read: TALK
In the first of a five part series, learn about ways to incorporate the Every Child Ready to Read practice TALK into your daily work.
Misnamed and Mispronounced: Picture Books
Along with a change of seasons, September also brings many other changes: a new school or new school year, new routines, new teachers, and new classmates, just to name a few. Although often exciting and enjoyable, for some children the new school year can also be stressful and anxiety provoking if their names are challenging for their teachers and classmates to pronounce. Some questions that children in these situations might be grappling with are: Will my new teacher be able to say and spell my name? Will the other kids be able to remember my name? Can or should I change my name to make it easier for everyone else? An article in the following NEA Today Newsletter, Why Pronouncing Students’ Names Correctly is So Important, discusses the emotional toll experienced by children when year after year they must contend with teachers and classmates who repeatedly misname them. For further…