Turn any surface into a fun place to play with Magnets! There are several brands of Magnetic Paint on the market today. Pick the one you like and a space in your library and let the fun begin. At our Library we have several columns around the Children’s room. I was looking for a way to turn these columns into a useable space for learning when I found Magnetic Paint. After 4 cans of paint, three coats on each column, I now had an inexpensive Active Learning Center. At first I purchased alphabet refrigerator magnets but found that the magnets used where too small and not strong enough to work with the paint for long. Then I found Melissa and Doug alphabet, number and animal magnets: http://www.melissaanddoug.com/magnetic-wooden-alphabet-learning, the whole back of these are magnetic and they work perfectly! Children spell their name, match the first letter of an animal’s name…
Category: Blogger Amanda Roberson
Why Common Core State Standards Matter #alamw13
Sunday at Midwinter, the Young Adult Reference Services Committee (YARS) of RUSA’s Reference Services Section (RSS) hosted a Discussion Group on The Common Core. Academic, School and Public Librarians filled the room to learn more about The Common Core and discuss its impact on the profession. I was privileged to lead the discussion with Rose Luna and Margaux DelGuidice. The discussion began with a three-minute video explaining the Common Core State Standards http://edupln.ning.com/video/video/show?id=4241570:Video:195143 followed by myself, Rose Luna and Margaux DelGuidice sharing an overview of the Common Core, how Librarians can support teachers as they implement the Common Core and a wealth of resources. The Common Core State Standards have been adopted by Forty-five states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education. These standards will require students to exhibit three essential practices across the all content areas. Demonstrate independence and perseverance. Construct arguments, comprehend, critique…
What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?
NACHO cheese! 🙂 Cheesy jokes like this one make a great Language Rich Library environment for older kids. All you need for this center is a wall, end cap or flat surface, some construction paper, a printer and a list of your favorite G rated jokes! Simply print the jokes and some cute clip art and glue them to a folded piece of construction paper. The joke on the front and then the answer/ punch line on the inside. Laminate them if you can so that they are more durable. This is also a great way to post trivia, memorable quotes, words and definitions or just about anything that has a question and an answer!
Community Helper Dress Up
Jump start your smallest customers imaginations with Dress Up! Place a few costumes in a section of your library and the kids will do the rest. You can purchase costumes from a supplier like Lakeshore Learning, have a volunteer make them, hunt for leftover Halloween costumes or through thrift stores. At my branch, we have a Firefighter, Pilot, Mail Carrier, Police Officer and a Doctor–complete with hats and all. I think I just heard a collective groan when I mentioned that we put hats out for kids to wear! They are plastic hats and we have bleach spay nearby for germ conscientious caregivers. We also spray the costumes and hats each night at closing with bleach spray (1 gallon water to 1 tablespoon bleach- will kill anything yucky and will not bleach the material). The costumes get laundered monthly as well. I have seen these costumes used…
Shhh! Whisper Tube!
This Active Learning Center is inexpensive, easy to install, space efficient and sure to be a hit! All you need is 1 ½ inch PVC Pipe and 90 and 45 degree joints to fit your space, PVC Glue, plastic mounting brackets and a handy volunteer! All of the materials can be found at your local hardware store for a very reasonable price. Whisper Tubes use the same science of a doctor’s stethoscope–sound waves. The sound waves from your voice are trapped inside and vibrate through the tube and then are reflected on the other side to another person’s ear! In the library, a whisper tube can carry the conversation from a caregiver to child, from a brother to a sister, from tiny customer and a librarian and even between new friends. The conversations are often rich and hilarious or sometimes as simple as the words “I Love You.” It is…
You’ve Got Mail @ Your Library!
Lexington Park Library’s newest active learning center is a Post Office complete with envelopes, paper, pencils (yes, pencils!), Mail Carrier costume, and mail boxes. We selected eight book characters to have mail boxes at our library and made up addresses for them. For example, Next, we made three plastic envelopes for each character with their address and picture on it. Then, we bought mailboxes from Lowes and labeled them each with a book characters address and picture. A volunteer mounted them on small stands that he made. They are placed around the Children’s section for kids to find as they deliver the mail. We set up a table in the corner of the Children’s section of the library to be our Post Office. It has the Mail Carrier Costume, a place to sort mail, a big blue mail box, a letter chart and is stocked with lined paper and…
STEM @ Your Library!
The Maryland state board of education just approved the following seven Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Standards of Practice for use in schools and many other states are working to create similar standards of practice for their school systems. These practices give guidance to the need to educate our youngest learners to live in a world where the job they will have as adults doesn’t even exist yet. 1. Learn and Apply Rigorous Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics content 2. Integrate Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Content 3. Interpret and Communicate Information from Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics 4. Engage in Inquiry 5. Engage in Logical Reasoning 6. Collaborate as a STEM team 7. Apply Technology Strategically My colleagues and I recently attended a great conference on STEM and Early Childhood. We learned more about the need for STEM in young children’s education and strategies for childcare providers and early…
Keeping it Clean!
Language Rich Library Environments add value to your customer’s library experience but they also add more “stuff” to your children’s section. I often get questions about how to keep centers in a library clean. The answer is three fold; encourage clean up, staff cleaning schedule and sanitization. Offer a stamp or sticker for kids who clean up their mess. We post signs around some of our more messy centers that encourage kids to clean up. After they clean up what they played with they can show the Librarian and get a stamp. Most children will do anything for a stamp or sticker. They are low cost and will save you and your staff a lot of cleaning. Clean up the area several times a day. All of our staff takes responsibility to clean up from the pages, to the circulation and reference staff to the security guard, everyone picks up…