New Year, New Displays

Here's what our bulletin boards are looking like at the minute:

• Junior Primary: Sharpen Your Mind (inspired by this)

I will admit, the odd pencil falls off occasionally. But still worth it for the effect.

Close-up of a corner with my flavourful post-it notes.

• Senior Primary: Hot Summer, Cool Reads (inspired by this)

I'm proud of this display because, aside from printing and laminating, my new library monitor trainees (Grade 7s) organised and put it all up themselves. We have ten new trainees this year: two have been given their full monitor status (plus BADGES) due to the work they put in last year, and eight are brand new. If they impress us by Easter, they'll get promoted too.

In the holidays, I also picked up this tiny plastic fishtank to decorate the front desk. It has four cute little magnetic fish inside and a wand to move them around with. What they don't tell you on the packaging is that it is also magnetic to children- kids are attracted like magnets to this thing. On the upside, it encourages them to hover at that spot. Perhaps I can put it in a more advantageous place?

"Miss M, what does it do?"

The Suggestion Monster

This post is to show off one of the new additions to the library this year: a suggestion box! I wanted it to be something the students wanted to use, that was eye-catching and would encourage them to provide suggestions about the library. In July, inspiration struck me. I looked around on Pinterest and Google for some monster crafts, and came up with this cute little thing (click the pictures to make them larger):

This is the Suggestion Monster! This afternoon, I had just finished emptying him of suggestions, he was totally full. I covered him in felt for body and spots, then I just glued some egg-carton eyes (with googly eyes) onto the top of him. Originally, he was a shoe box, which is why he has the 'hand' flap. I glued a roll of cardboard to the hand flap to let him hold his own pencil, which the students love. I cut off the other flap, and cut the front flap into the jagged teeth. The box mouth lifts up so the suggestion notes can be put inside. He took about 2 days to finish, in between regular library work. 

He sits on the computer table, underneath a page which gives the students some guidelines about what to suggest. Since July, students have regularly used the suggestion box. Usually, they suggest authors or books they would like, but occasionally they have even given me suggestions for events the library should run and the library layout. I'm happy that he continues to be such a popular feature of the library. 

We have started training up a group of student library monitors, who are doing an excellent job in assisting me with re-shelving the book returns and tidying the shelves. Each monitor has chosen a shelf to be in charge of, and I have started awarding a Shelf of the Week label. This idea has come from multiple librarian blogs, thank you all so much for continuing to share your creations!

It's hard to believe I've only been working at this school as a librarian for only 3 months.