Today's Classroom Activities :

Celebrating National Library Week

Integrated Research
Social Studies/Research Work with your librarian to plan an in-depth research project during National Library Week, April 11-17. Make sure that your students use the electronic catalog, online searches, magazine guides and video collections to find information that will be meaningful to them. Ask your librarian to work with your class during the beginning stages of research and at the conclusion of the project to aid with the construction of bibliographies. The subject of the research can be any topic or unit you're currently teaching in your classroom.

Literary Treasure Hunt
Research During National Library Week, work with your librarian to make a treasure hunt for the class by writing a call number for each student on an index card. Try to match the call number with the known reading level and interests of each student. Send them to the library with the card and challenge them to find their book using the call number and their familiarity with the library.

National Library Workers Day
National Library Workers Day is April 13 this year. It is held in honor of the library staff, users, administrators and friends groups who have made a valuable contributions throughout the year. At this site students can nominate a "Great Library School Student," a "Great Student Worker," they can also nominate themselves. There is also a free poster that you can download and a podcast that you and your students can listen to.

Alphabetize for a Reason
This lesson is designed to show students how to organize information by using the alphabet.

Promoting Diversity in the Classroom and School Library through Social Action
Through an exploration of stereotypes in children’s picture books such as books from Disney's Princess Collection, students identify the limited view established in these fictional worlds. Next, students compare these stereotyped representations to more diverse portrayals in matching texts, such as The Paper Bag Princess or Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. Finally, students use their findings to promote diversity by creating paired books or text sets that match stereotypical portrayals with balanced and diverse texts. Students create bookmarks that encourage readers to question the assumptions of stereotyped books and to seek out matching, balanced texts.