As School Outreach Coordinator, part of my job includes creating and providing teacher in-services for our early childhood community. I recently surveyed the directors of our early childhood organizations to get feedback on outreach services, including those workshops. The directors showed a desire for an in-service on social-emotional learning. Back-to-school time can definitely bring out a variety of emotions, in kids and adults! I’ll be using these five books in an upcoming in-service on social-emotional topics.
Category: Blogger Kary Henry
Mini-Olympics
I am a huge fan of the Olympics. I love the sports, the stories, even the commercials! From the athletes to the ads, all of it tugs on my heartstrings. Do I cry? Why, yes, yes, I do! Building on this love of Olympics (minus the tears), I decided to offer an Olympics program at the Library but wanted to put a unique spin on it. Thus were born the Mini-Olympics.
Great Summer Reads
Every May, I look forward to sharing my “Great Summer Reads” booktalks with all of our fifth graders across town. I schedule these visits through our amazing school librarians and share a wide variety of titles and genres.
A Few Things I Didn’t Know
I came to the world of public libraries as a career later in life. I had always, ALWAYS, loved and used libraries, but it wasn’t until 17 years ago that I started working in this field that I love so much. Even after all this time, I’m still amazed at what I didn’t know about working in libraries.
My First Book Club
After hearing how successful an early reader book club was at an area library (thanks, Katie Burke from Indian Trails Public Library District), a colleague and I decided to launch My First Book Club at our library. Already it has become a very popular program!
Creative Clubhouse
When I started a new program two years ago, I knew I wanted to combine books, crafts, and a sense of wonder for the world around us. Thus, Creative Clubhouse was born. Truth be told, I think I enjoy it as much as the kids! Program Plan Creative Clubhouse participants are in Kindergarten through second grade. During each session of the six week program, I read a book to the group, we take time to delight in and wonder about something, and then we get creative! The students are used to this routine: reading, discussing, creating. We don’t take a long time to discuss, but it’s a really powerful part of the program. Often I’ll use the Smithsonian Institution’s Learning Lab to curate collections. Looking at the art or other items in a particular collection, I’ll ask the students to use Project Zero’s thinking routine: See, Think, Wonder. What do…
Making Connections
Making connections is perhaps the number one thing we do. As library professionals, we make connections between children and books. We make connections between people and resources. We make connections between our community and the library. A colleague and I have created another connection: with a newsletter for caregivers of preschool-aged children.
Snow Days!
We recently had a snow day, both for the students of our area and for the public library where I work. I remember snow days of my youth, patiently waiting for our school district to be called over the radio station or for its name to appear at the bottom of the television crawl. (Yes, I’m dating myself here.) The anticipation….followed by the joy of a random day off! Even though I was “that kid” who loved school, I also loved being at home, usually curled up with a book. And then when our daughters were school-aged, it was the same: the joys of relaxed expectations, crafts, board games, and, of course, books!