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Category: Activities (Page 1 of 2)

Book Week 2023: Making T-Shirts with A Cricut

Book Week 2023: Making T-Shirts With A Cricut

How are you celebrating Book Week this year? It’s become a bit of a tradition at my school to celebrate with themed Book Week t-shirts for the staff. This happened thanks to the enthusiasm, skills and energies of one of the amazing Junior School teachers. But you might have seen the suggestion on my Book Week 2023 Resources and Ideas list or maybe you’ve seen other schools do it. If you are not sure how to get started, how to download or use a pre-made design or maybe how to create your own design, I promise it is super easy. Here’s everything you need to know to get started making your own t-shirts for Book Week.

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Ramblings: Dungeon and Dragons

Starting a Dungeons and Dragons Group in the School Library

I want to start this post by saying, I’m not the expert when it comes to starting a Dungeon and Dragon club, far from it, actually. The expert would be Lucas Maxwell. He blogs about Dungeons and Dragons, has a podcast and is even writing a book about it. So why then, you might ask, would someone who is not Lucas Maxwell want to share her tips about how to start a D&D club? Because maybe you, like me, want to start just such a group but, like me, are not a D&D expert or maybe, also like me, have never even played D&D. This post is for all the complete and utter beginners (we need a word for someone is less experienced than a beginner, perhaps a prebeginner?), who have maybe heard of D&D but have no idea what a DM is or how to even actually play but want to start a D&D group in their school library anyway. 

      

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Resource: Designing T-Shirts

Designing T-Shirts in the Library with the Cricut

A fun activity I’ve run this year was designing t-shirts with our Cricut machine. I’ve it with two class groups and will extend that to a lunchtime activity and after school activity once we have our new space next year.

I love our Library’s Cricut machine. I even convinced the Design Tech department that they needed one, so now I have  two to use.

Designing t-shirts is so easy with the Cricut machines and the end products look great. I loved how quickly my students picked up the design, cut and heat process. Once they got the basics down, they quickly started attempting more detailed designs.

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Review and Giveaway: LockPaperScissors Escape Rooms

Review and Giveaway – LockPaperScissors Escape Rooms

If you’ve always wanted to run an escape room in your school library, now is your chance. I’ve teamed up with the fantastic team at LockPaperScissors to review their escape room kits and give you a chance to win one of their Big Box or Kids Big Box.

Running escape rooms had been on my to-do wish list for a while but it always seemed a little daunting. Then I found the escape room kits from LockPaperScissors. 

LockPaperScissors sells downloadable and printable escape room kits. They include everything you need, plus tips on how to expand or customise your escape room to make it epic.

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Activity: Badge Making

Badge Making in the School Library

This term we launched our new Create program. Part of our Connect, Coach, Create initiative, Create is all about getting students hands on with their learning and exploring in the school library. Think makerspace, craft, baking, anything that gets students, staff and our school community, well…, creating.

Our first Create event was badge making. I wanted to start with something fairly easy (and not too messy). With our current, temporary space that is fairly limited, I knew the activity also needed to be easy to set-up and pack-up.

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Activity: Escape Room

Escape Room in the School Library

I’ve always wanted to run an escape room activity in my school library and this week I finally had that opportunity. This year, my amazing Head of Library and I launched our new Reading From The Heart program. It was a mix of special reading events and library sessions with our middle schoolers. For our second special Reading From The Heart event, we wanted something that would appeal to a wide audience and be easy for us to put together in a busy term 4. When my Head of Library suggested an Escape Room, I was super excited to get started.

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Activity: Weapon (book) launch party

Activity – Weapon (book) launch party

With the release of a new book by Lynette Noni, my high school book clubers just couldn’t wait to get their hands on Weapon, sequel to Whisper. We couldn’t make the trip to the offical launch parties being held around Australia, so we decided to hold our own. It was a fun way to celebrate (any excuse for food in book club is popular) and helped promote our book club to readers who usually didn’t attend. Their were a few members who were not fans but cheerfully went along with things, content with the party supplies.

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Activity: Literary Photo Booth

Activity – Literary Photo Booth

Our students love photo booths. They love taking photos with our library iPad, creating mini scenes and using book-themed props, especially when they are dressed up for Book Week or another special event. Previously I have used just a plain backdrop – either a roll of paper or a plastic tablecloth – but for Book Week 2019, I wanted to make a photo booth out of a fridge box, all with a literary theme.

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