Library Wrap UP 2024

BOOK FAIR

This was our second year working with Literati as our book fair vendor. We broke our record from years past and raised over $3200 in book rewards! Every single dollar will be used toward purchasing new books for our library. 

I want to express my sincere gratitude to all the dedicated parents who volunteered their time and effort to make this event such a successful book fair.

Despite the monetary success, we have decided to try something new next year. We will be teaming up with our local independent bookstore - The Village Well to host our next bookfair in November 2024 during parent-teacher conference week! I can't wait to bring you all an even better selection of books.

Also in the works is another book fair in the Spring. This one will be a used book fair! Stay tuned for more info.

"QUIET" RECESS IN THE LIBRARY

Many kids enjoyed coming to the library during their recess for "quiet recess" this year, although often it wasn't so quiet at all. During "quiet recess," students had the chance to explore books individually or with friends. Kids also had a chance to express themselves through drawing and coloring, making zines, lending a helping hand in shelving books and dusting, and sometimes just taking some much-needed rest. 

This year Origami was a big hit (I am now a master of the Origami frog!). Later in the year we were also generously gifted a few chess sets (thanks Chess Wizards!!), and they almost immediately became a huge hit. Chess veterans and newbies alike were pairing up to learn/teach the rules and play quick chess matches before the bell rang. 

The popularity of "quiet recess" sometimes led to busy days where we had to create a waitlist to ensure everyone had a chance to participate, happy problems! I look forward to continuing to provide a vibrant and welcoming space for all during recess.

ZINE CLUB #2

Zine Club is becoming a new Short Ave tradition. Zine Club, an after-school program led by yours truly, was so much fun! Zines (pronounced zeens), are DIY mini magazines resembling small handmade books. We focused on my favorite form, the 8 page minizine, that can be made by folding a regular piece of copy paper in a special way, creating a small 8 page "magazine". Copies can be easily made using a copy machine, allowing the kids to be published authors.

The beauty of zines lies in their limitless possibilities for self-expression and creativity. With no set rules, we dove into making zines of all shapes, sizes, and topics. And we made lots and lots of them. We also had a visiting artist - Yael Levy. Yael's a mixed media artist, storyteller, printmaker, art teacher and all-around great human. Plus, she's the one who introduced me to my first zine fest way back when! We had a great workshop with her on character design. 

To culminate our Zine Club, we hosted a mini zinefest. This special event allowed the kids to trade their unique creations with one another, fostering a sense of community and expanding their personal zine collections.

I am hoping Zine Club will return in Spring 2024, and will be open to 3rd - 5th graders. Keep an eye out for more details as we embark on another creative journey together!

Buddy Books Display

Our most popular display this year was the fun buddy book display, "we go together like...". I pulled books that we had multiple copies of for friends to checkout together and have a mini book club with their friend. Kids absolutely loved it. I will have to bring this back again next year! 

5th grade zine workshop and wrap up zine

This year I really wanted to do a proper goodbye from the library for our culminating 5th graders. At this point, I have known most of them from Kinder (!) and it has been a joy watching them grow as readers (and as people...) during their time here at Short. 

In the workshop, the kids got a chance to learn what zines are, how to fold a them, and will get to create there very on "5th Grade Wrap Up Mini Zine", that will capture them in this special moment of time, a time capsule if you will. In it, they chose words that describe them, remembered their favorite books, told us what they know a lot about and what they would like to learn more about in the future, wrote a memory they don't want to forget from this year, got their friends autographs (maybe they'll be famous one day!) and take a picture of themselves with their favorite book from our library. 

I wish them all good luck in their next big adventure in middle school. I hope many of them will keep their love of books and reading and come to visit sometimes! I miss them already. 

VOLUNTEERS

I want to thank everyone that came to help volunteer this year, especially during the book fair. I am truly grateful for all your help. Please consider volunteering next year too :) 

WISHLIST

If you would like to help keep our library great and make it even better, please check out our library wishlist.