ASM Story Time, vol. 1

A main goal of mine in the school library is to have students want to come IN the library! I started an event in March, that I hope to continue every now and then... so far there have been two 'volumes' and I've received good feedback from students and teachers... and good participation! During the two upper school lunch periods, I've offered a 20-minute Story Time event... open to all... free and fun.
: )

I set up with some teachers to have them each read a fun/funny/interactive children's book aloud... I then created a cozy reading area in the library... scanned each book into the computer to project on the screen behind the readers... and... let the fun commence!

Pretty cool to see middle and high school students loving being read to.

One of my favorite moments happened before the event ever took place. I had the reading area set up... and as the students came into the library in the morning, they looked for their usual comfy seats but they weren't in the usual corner. ...Then they noticed the reading area. I had left some books out... and hilariously a group of about 15 or 20 high school students sat in the reading area and one of the boys began reading Shel Silverstein's book, The Giving Tree - saying that it used to be one of his favorites as a child! Love, love, love. ...Give them books and they shall read!

I had displayed posters advertising the event around school the week before... but then also printed some stickers about the event and some of the teachers that were reading. I then grabbed Ms. Gerken - a lovely language arts teacher... who was wearing a black wig over her gorgeous blonde hair, to be the wicked Ms. Viola Swamp from book, Miss Nelson is Missing!... and we walked through the halls handing out stickers. Hilariously, many people didn't even realize that this lady was Ms. Gerken!

Ms. Gerken reading, Miss Nelson is Missing!

Pretty good turnout of high schoolers for our first event!

Husband-wife duo, Mr. Wilson and Ms. Baldi - reading Mo Willems' book,

Leonardo the Terrible Monster...

This is from the middle schoolers' free lunch period:

Mr. Briner reading an excerpt from the book, The Alchemist:

Mr. Citrin in his grandpa's smoking jacket... reading Mo Willems' book, 

The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!

...with incredibly cute co-star for the duckling...

a 4-year old early childhood student (and me, feeding her the lines)...