End-of-Year in the Library
Last year was my first year working in our school’s early childhood and primary school library, and I learned so so much. Though I have been teaching for over 20 years, shifting gears into this new role presented me with opportunities to discover talents I had yet to realize I possessed. Organizing a library post-pandemic and getting it back to a warm, inviting and thriving place and teaching library classes each week is apparently my wheelhouse! Our vastly more experienced librarian (who runs our other library for older students) kindly showed me the ropes, while simultaneously empowering me to lean into my newly acquired skillset. It’s been great! At the end of the year last year, however, I found myself uncomfortably busy, not knowing how to properly close things out for the school year. What to do?!
Teachers embrace mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow, and this year I feel better prepared for these last few weeks of school. I backed up our final checkouts by a week now that I understand that nearly every class will squeeze in field trips and adventures to tie a bow on their learning. I created reminders of last checkouts and posters to display on the library door to signal to students (and their teachers) that checkouts will be ending soon. I also made reminders for students to return overdue books, since those will likely be needed. I made new bookmarks to give out when each student returns their books. (Are your students as fond of coloring bookmarks as mine are? I love how much they love them!) And since we will not have checkout during the last few weeks of classes, that affords a more relaxed library routine with ample free choice activities. Knowing how much the kids enjoy coloring pages, I also created several designs that encourage summer reading. I even made some posters for our hallway bulletin board in the hopes of seeing every library book return to school. Making these resources for my students is so much fun for me and it is a hoot to see them delight in all of it. If you are a teacher or children’s librarian like me, I wish you a lots of deep breaths and laughter with your students and colleagues. And if you are interested in finding out more about these ready-to-go resources, you can check them out HERE! Happy almost summer to you! xoxo
