Cuyahoga Falls High School
We have a poetry slam each year in the library, kind of cover more than one celebration in one. - Lynn Garver
Immaculate Conception
Some of the activities I did this year or in year's past for NLW include:
1. A Battle of the Books Trivia Competition on five Gordon Korman books. (Korman visited in March and students had from early Feb - NLW to read a least three of the five books to compete in the contest -- all students also received a sucker and bookmark for each of the books they read whether they competed in the final contest or not).
2. Daily trivia questions read over the PA (one for K-3 and one for 4-8). All correct answers placed in a daily raffle for prizes.
3. An "@ your library" poster contest for grades 4-6 where the students must create a slogan and poster using the "@ your library" campaign.
4. Students in grades 6-8 design a "Bookopoly" game as a group using books or library themed spaces, chance cards, etc.
5. Younger grades work as class or in groups to create a poster of what they like about libraries that are then hung out in the hallways.
6. Public librarians invited in to booktalk or promote programs at public library.
7. I always suspend typical library lessons and do a reading celebration activity during their library visits -- either storytime and/or SSR.
8. Last year, we used the summer reading theme "Get a clue @ your library" for our week's celebration and we played mystery-type games in several classes. - Jessica Klinker
Hiland High School
Hiland High and Middle School students were encouraged to "Catch the Reading Wave". The library was transformed with beach and Hawaiian decorations. Students designed their own wet suit and surf board on simple outlines, they matched surfer slang words to their definitions, brought a beach towel to relax and read on in the library, and dressed with the theme of the day such as Hawaiian print day, hat, sunglasses, and flip flop day, etc. They earned a piece of candy for their daily participation. Students that submitted a book review to our new Hiland Book Blog at http://hiland.edublogs.org/ earned a chance to win the grand prize of $20.00.
Past celebrations included "Reading is Out of this World" (outer space theme), "From the Page to Real" (books to movies theme), "Read and Imagine" (you can be anyone, go anywhere, do anything in a book), and "Get Caught Reading" (earned tickets distributed by staff if they were caught reading, bulletin board of photos of anyone reading), "Grand Opening Celebration" (highlighted book genres as daily blue light specials, promoted new library facility). Each yearly theme includes dressing for the day, trivia, book review, book/resource scavenger hunts, and lots of fun. Prizes include book store gift certificates, candy for participation, and sometimes cash.
Our bulletin boards are a big hit because they always fit the theme and include pictures of staff and students. For example for the "Catch the Reading Wave" bulletin board we took pictures of staff and students with humorous facial expressions. We cut out their heads and mounted them on clipart images such as parasailers, surfers, beach bums on lounge chairs, swimmers being attached by sharks, etc. The background (made of colored paper) looked like a beach with buildings, sand, and large waves.
Lorain Admiral King High School
We celebrated School Library Month by creating posters and bookmarks of students and staff reading. The posters were displayed in the library display case and posted on the schools web site.
We also celebrated National Poetry Month by teaming up with the Lorain Public Library to bring author/poet Sara Holbrook to our school. The library sponsored a poetry writing contest and during library week, one of the student’s poems were read during the morning announcements. - Joan Yarsa
Madison Local Schools
We did an activity that worked in the "National Poetry Month" theme also. We sponsored "Poem in your Pocket" day and then passed out treats to all students carrying a poem around (we advertised it ahead of time)...it was surprising how many students you wouldn't expect (grades 7 - 12) were carrying poems in their pockets. - Diana Polston
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Normandy Elementary School
We had amnesty week at our school library. There were no fines charged at the library during National Library Week. All of the children in the school were allowed to check out an extra book during their library class that week, also. All of the children were given Ramona badges to wear that week to celebrate Beverly Cleary's Birthday in conjunction with National Library Week. We took ten minutes out of each school day for D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) using our Library books.
We are a K-2 school, so things are usually kept simple. We had fun, though. - Linda Noble
North Ridgeville
We had a Scholastic Book Fair for our middle school and a special storyteller for our elementary. - Barbara Sutton
Ridgeview Junior HS
Pickerington Local Schools
In our school, we had a Kidnapping Mystery Week, which also coincided with our Right to Read Week. One day we had a silent sustained reading and on Wednesday night, we asked the kids to turn off the TV and read! We also hosted the students as they came to our mystery as they tried to figure out "whodunnit". We announced that the week was National Library Week on the announcements, and on fliers. (see flyer) - Alisa Humphrey
Trinity High School
During National Library Week and Teen Right to Read Week, all the teachers gave students 1/2 hour time to read. As we are on the block schedule, this gives students 2 hours during the week to read. They may not use textbooks. The library also makes available magazines from previous issues and, of course, all books in the library.
This year the ALA made available very short commercials about libraries that were very funny. These were run during the announcements in the morning that go to every classroom TV.
Wellston High School
Wellston High School work on duct tape crafts or they had the option to alter old books that had been weeded. Some of the students were very creative and made layered art pieces in the books. Friday the students played board games. - Kimberly Barrett
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If you would like to share your National Library Week celebration activities and ideas send email to: marshams@library.ohio.gov