PASSIONATE ABOUT SCHOOL LIBRARIES
Teen Tech Week is an initiative of American Library Association’s Young Adult Library Services Association. While this is a US-based week of celebration, the concept and idea behind it is something I whole-heartedly support and think it is worthwhile celebrating in any library.
In 2019 The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle will celebrate 50 years in print. To celebrate we decided to turn the Very Hungry Caterpillar day (March 20th) into a gigantic birthday celebration.
For years now, our Junior Reading Room has hosted a giant Hungry Caterpillar poster, created by the students many years ago. It is a much-loved favourite of our Head of Library Services and so it has held pride of place in the Reading Room. So, I decided to design and place the Very Hungry Caterpillar 50 Years display around this old poster.
The giant hanging leaf is a new addition to the reading room, purchased from Ikea, and it fit nicely into the display.
With a lot of help from our awesome student library helpers, we made 3D fruit for the Caterpillar to munch on, thanks to Mr Printables for the awesome templates. All the needed fruit is available in the free downloadable pack, we just had to colour the oranges orange to transform them from lemons. We also used these 3D fruits to create headbands to wear throughout the week (any excuse to dress up). We just hot-glued the fruit to a plastic headband.
Our handy Cricut cutting machine cut lots of coloured dots, which we strung together to add brightness to the area. (These could also be used for a Roald Dahl display, as it kind of looked like Willy Wonka had thrown a party with all the colour). A 3D caterpillar was made with styrofoam balls, green and red paint, a purple straw, goggly eyes and more hot glue.
As well as dressing up throughout the week of celebrations, we also ran a Hungry Hunt. Students had to find the fruit cutouts hidden around the library and write down the secret clue hidden with each piece of fruit. Their answers went into the draw to win this awesome prize pack – thanks to Penguin Australia for previous supplying us with Hungry Caterpillar Posters, which were both included in the prize pack and included in the display.
Have you read The Dot by Pete H. Reynolds? It is one of my favourite picture books. I love its message of creativity and having a go.
International Dot Day is celebrated on the 15th (ish) of September. This year we celebrated International Dot Day by creating a special Dot display.
I printed off a load of blank dots – easily made with Word and the circle shape. Inspired by the story, the students created their own dot. Emoji and Pokemon symbols were popular choices for the students, while others created beautiful patterns. I also printed off some celebri-dots from the celebri-dots website, to provide some inspiration.
I then made a giant dot out of all our little dots and added the quote “Just make a mark and see where it takes you” to the bottom of the display. It was a great way to incorporate student artwork into a display.
Find more information about International Dot Day from the Dot Club website and my International Dot Day post.
ANZAC Day occurs on the 25th of April each year here in Australia. It is a day that remembers and honours those who served and died in wars, and commemorates the spirit of the ANZACs – sacrifice, courage and mateship.
I created a simple display in the entrance of the school library to coincide with the weeks surrounding ANZAC Day.
I made strands of tissue paper poppies to hand over the returns desk. They made a great impact on-mass and looked lovely swinging in the breeze. Continue reading
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