For the Love of Reading- February in the Library

 January and all of the adventures got away with me- but I am ready to ring in February.

I am starting my February in San Antonio at TCEA where I will be talking about Leveraging Your Online Presence.  I am also going to have a Pop Up Storytime to celebrate World Read Aloud Day.  Lots of links with pictures throughout the blog (along with shoutouts to all the amazing librarians that are sharing their resources!  Of course, I have lots going on at school- but it is also Destination ImagiNation season, Girl Scout cookie season, and some extra events going on at the pool that I am working at.

Things that I have planned for February

-World Read Aloud Day
-Dino Hunt
-Blind Date with a Book
-TCEA
-Keep Irving Beautiful Valentine Cards
-Black History Month

World Read Aloud Day

World Read Aloud Day is February 1st and you can find a TON of different ideas already ready-made.  Check out the Scholastic Website or check out Twitter and look for #WorldReadAloudDay23 

I will be at TCEA  that day, but I have decided I will be doing a Pop Up Storytime that will have a technology extension activity.  If I was at school- I think I would do the same thing.  I will be reading Have you Seen Gordon Adam Jay Epstein and Illustrated by Ruth Chan. I will share the activity after my storytime on Wednesday!

Dino Hunt

Are you following Melissa Corey on Twitter- if not- GO DO IT NOW! Not only does she share great programming ideas, but she also shares the templates. She just shared the Dinosaur Scavenger hunt for February and it is SO cute.  My high schoolers enjoyed the last scavenger hunt that I did- so I can't wait to get this one.  You can find the original tweet here

Blind Date with a Book

Another one of my favorite librarians to learn from is Racheal Reads- great ideas and she shares so many templates.  There are so many ideas out there for Blind Date with a Book- but I love how Rachael Reads has it set up- AND she shared her great resource! You can find it here

I had to recreate and add some of my own books.  You can find my template here

The white space on the bottom is where I added the barcode for each book for easy checkout.  For the descriptions, I used the annotation from Mackin (to make my life easier)  I also found this website that would make barcodes for me- Online Barcode Generator

TCEA

TCEA is the Texas Computer Education Association.  I have been a member of TCEA for probably about 15 years.  Every year they have an annual conference that is absolutely amazing! This year the conference is in San Antonio.  I am not able to go for the whole time, but I am slated to present on Wednesday afternoon over Leveraging Your Online Presence.  The bad news- DFW is currently under a winter storm warning... so I don't know if I am going to be able to make the drive. I will share my presentation soon!

Check out #TCEA23 on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok for some great learning!

Keep Irving Beautiful Valentine's Cards

I love that Keep Irving Beautiful has started these different opportunities for the community to give back.  Last year they invited community members to create cards that would be delivered to nursing homes at Christmas- they got so much great feedback that they began to do it for Valentine's Day too.  I of course love doing programming- and doing programming that you can give back to is even better!  I create card samples and get materials for the different kinds of cards.  Students can of course create their own, but sometimes they need a little help.  To prepare for the card making I ask students to sign up first (this way I know who to expect)  I also invite attendees to create 2 cards.  They will donate one card, but then be able to keep the other card for themselves.

You can find the 3 different cards that I created by clicking on this template.

Black History Month

I don't have a huge amount of space for displays-so I try to be creative.  I created a display cart for Black History month of some of my favorite authors. Disclaimer- Most of these books are also my Keller recommendations- so I have these books visible 24/7 unless they are checked out!

What do you have planned for February? I have also been devouring books this month.  I have already finished 14 books with The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson being my favorite so far.  March will be full of Read Across America, Spring Break- and who knows what else I can fit in.