How NOT to Treat a Library Book

Every year about this time, school librarians around the world are teaching lessons about how to treat the library books when they are checked out and taken home. There are any number of books out there about the care and use of library books, one of the most popular comes from the Mr. Wiggle series. Mr. Wiggle is the library bookworm who wears HUGE blue glasses, I got to get me some of those, and addresses library skills through cutesy rhyming books. For what they are, they're not bad, but how many times can a kid listen to a book worm wearing HUGE blue glasses named Mr. Wiggle!? In my first year I decided to add my own twist to the lesson by donning faux scientific protective gear, goggles, plastic apron, rubber gloves, and demonstrating what NOT to do to our library books when they go home. It was so much fun, that I decided to roll it out again this year, and thought I'd share it here on the blog. Remember, kids do not try this at home!

I am a highly trained professional! Everything you are about to witness today should NOT be done to any library book.
Please make sure your hands are clean when you pick up a library book, don't write in them, if you rip a page, don't tape it yourself. All of these things, I actually do to an old library book to the shock and horror of the younger kids, and to the complete delight of the older kids.Please don't eat a messy PB&J sandwich with the jelly squirting (insert appropriate raspberry noise here) out the sides or a messy English muffin with every nook and cranny overflowing with honey while reading our books. Yes, I smear jelly and honey all over the pages making an awesome mess on the pages of a book. The final product looks something like this.
It almost looks like some sort of modern art gone terribly wrong. Don't you think?

The Amazing Library Race

From the time I started teaching, one of my number one goals has always been, make it fun! I've always believed that if I can get the kids to look forward to school and enjoy every day they are there, I could teach them anything. To that end, when I moved into the library I took a look at the teaching guidelines and immediately started designing games to teach the skills. One of the few things I remember a librarian trying to teach me, was the Dewey Decimal system, and I could never figure out why. Now, before all of my librarian friends take a collective GASP! let me explain. I could never figure out why it was important to know what numbers went with what subjects when I was just going to look inn the card catalog (remember those?) and then go to the number it told me. I was capable of counting and understand decimals so I was always able to find the shelf address I needed. That's how I've approached it in the library now that I'm teaching the Dewey Decimal. I don't really care that the kids don't know that animals are in the 500s, can you find the 500s? Can you find 599.72 or whatever? Well, to help them with this skill, I designed The Amazing Library Race patterned after my favorite show, The Amazing Race on CBS. I was cheering for Dallas and his mom...anyway, here' how it works and some pix of the most recent version in the library.

It's simple really, I wrote four sets of clues that make the kids use their skills of finding books on the shelf. Each set has 5 clues and a roadblock challenge. The teams designated by the color of their bandannas get their first clue and are off to find the next clue hidden in the book found by using the call number. At some point they will hit the roadblock challenge which could be anything from putting a set of cards in alphabetical order and having one of our secretaries check their work, to counting painted tiles on the wall. Each team has a different color stop watch and the times over the four legs of the race are combined for a winner. I give a prize to the fastest team in each fifth grade class, and a bigger prize to the overall winner in fifth grade. Yes the kids are loud as they look for clues, yes they run in the hall to complete the roadblock challenge, and yes, I think they have fun.