Blogger Joannie Lauria

Winter Mindfulness for Kids

Winter is here! These cold winter days can mean lots of time cooped up inside with little opportunity for children to release energy. For many who already struggle with regulating, this season can feel especially hard. Librarians can step in to teach and model mindful strategies to help them feel more grounded.  Mindfulness in the Library Practicing mindfulness is important to help children regulate, sustain their attention, and manage their emotions. As librarians, we can subtly infuse mindful practices into our programming to support kids. One strategy is to use cozy picture books to offer winter relief, as blogger Erika Hogan shared. Another strategy you could try is implementing “One Mindful Minute” of deep breathing or other stress-reducing activity into your programs. To take things a step further, you could try building an entire activity or program that is centered around mindfulness. As a Certified Yoga Teacher, I have a…

Blogger Nicole Martin

Five Fresh, Fun Graphic Novel Favorites

Can you believe it is already the end of May? Between summer reading preparation, end of the school year classroom visits, outreach, collection weeding, programming, and preparing for my library to join a new consortium-the past few months have totally flown by! 2017 so far has seen some stellar new graphic novel publications and throughout the past few months I’ve encountered some standout titles. As we move forward into the month of June and the beginning of summer, I’ve rounded up some of my favorite new releases of the past few months below. Check out my top picks to freshen up your graphic novel shelves for all your summer readers!   Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences Written by Gene Luen Yang; Illustrated by Mike Holmes. Another awesome addition to the Secret Coders series was released in March and it does not dissapoint. Blending sci-fi adventure with computing and math concepts, this book is a stellar choice for middle…