Library Summer Camp Was Great!

Thank you Peter and all the staff and presenters who made the recent Library Summer Camp a rewarding experience both as a presenter and attendee. I really learned a lot and I appreciate all the wonderful compliments I've received on my presentation.

I thought I'd post the David Goes to the Library book that I'll be starting the year with next week. It's a fun way to introduce the rules of behavior in the library as well as book care. The first year I did this I read No, David! by David Shannon to each class (yes, even fifth graders still love it). Then I told each class that I had an idea for a book called, David Goes to the Library. I asked for their suggestions on the kinds of things we could have David doing wrong in the library and not taking care of books. I'd write these ideas down on a chart pad.

The next week when they came I had taken the ideas (or the ones I wanted to use) and drawn pictures (or have an artist friend) of David doing what he shouldn't do in the library. I drew these big book size on chart pad paper (be sure to trim it so it'll fit in your laminator) and I used all the David books to see if I could use similar pictures for my needs. I had invited students to help color the pictures at recess during the week and then laminated them. Be careful to use good quality crayons for coloring because some of them melted in the laminator's heat and it looks like David's face is dripping!

When I read this book each year now (after first reading No, David!) I try to cover up the words and have the classes guess from the picture what David is doing wrong. When I come to the book care pages I bring out an actual library book that has been damaged in the way that is mentioned on the page (scribbled on, torn, moldy from food or water damage). I try to save the most horrible examples to share for a lasting impression. I guess it worked because one little boy brought his mom in after school asking to see the "dirty book in the library". He meant the one I'd shared that had been dropped in the mud I quickly explained to the mom!