The Scholastic Book Fair was a great success. Students have been excited to find their favorite characters, fuzzy journals, and interesting fact books. Students shopped, practiced rounding up to estimate their costs, and helped other students locate just right books. “I love the Book Fair, Ms. Holmes. It’s like I’m in a toy and a bookstore at the same time,” smiled Cristian, first grade student.

The Book Fair is an opportunity for students to understand the importance of money. Once they understand how much money they have, they make a quick budget and stay within that budget. Staying within a budget is not always fun for adults, so it’s even more challenging for our students.

Students pictured below created their wish lists.

In the library, students not only check out books, complete research and read. Students' creativity and inquiring minds are expanded through makerspaces. Makerspaces are not new in school libraries. A makerspace is an area in the library that gives students the opportunity to explore, design, create, collaborate, learn, and investigate. According to Annette Lamb, "they (makerspaces) can be linked with participatory learning, problem-solving environments, and inquiry-based learning, making them an excellent means to address the diverse needs of today’s students along with Standards for the 21st Century Learner," (Lamb, 2015).

When students are able to try new things, fail, evaluate why they failed and try again, they are learning to become resilient learners with a growth mindset. The library is the perfect place for this to occur. Every student can be successful, learn new skills, and practice skills they learned in their classroom.

Lamb, A. Makerspaces and the school library part 1: where creativity blooms (2015). Infotech.

Every day, reading matters. According to Scholastic, a student who reads 20 minutes a day will be exposed to 1,800,000 words per year and can score in the 90th percentile on standardized tests. Students who read 5 minutes a day will be exposed to 282,000 words per year and can score in the 50th percentile on standardized tests. Students who read 1 minute a day will be exposed to 8,000 words per year and can score in the 10th percentile on standardized tests.

Tip: Use a picture book and cover the words on every page. Ask your students to "read" the pictures to try to guess what is happening in each book. Also ask students to provide evidence from each picture to support their reading of the picture. When the student finishes the book, reread the book by uncovering the words on each page one at a time. Ask students to now provide evidence in each picture to support the words on the page. Then ask your student how close they were to actually telling the story.

Use animoto.com to see if your student can visualize and understand the book they read by creating a book trailer. A book trailer is just like a movie trailer. Students retell the story by giving highlights of the book. They should not give away the ending of the book. (No spoilers please.) Students should add pictures and music to the slideshow maker to help students express what they saw in their mind while reading as well as what they may have heard in their mind while reading.

Mr. Handler was born on February 28, 1970 in San Francisco, CA. His pen name is Lemony Snicket and he is famous for the Series of Unfortunate Events. He is also a screenwriter and musician. There is also a Netflix original Series of Unfortunate Events. Picture from lemonysnicket.com