Picking over the bones: cheap library furniture

Sad though it is to have two major Australian bricks'n'mortar bookshop chains closing (Angus & Robertson and Borders), I noted the other day at the store nearest me that they are selling off a lot of shopfittings, including perspex book holders, wire folding book holders, storage cubes and slatwall, that could be useful for libraries.

I got some perspex book holders (five linked units) for $10.  The wooden storage cubes were $40, the slatwall $100 for a large section (which would suit the end of a shelving run, for example).  Little hinged wire bookstands $2.

Don't know what your local store may have/may have left, but it's an opportunity to obtain some decent quality used bookstore/ library furnishings at bargain prices. (I said hello to the other local TL who happened to be in the shop at the same time...!)

Cheers

Ruth

The happy life of teacher librarians: the late note

The scene: a school library.  Busyish lunchtime over, a few students in the library on study periods etc.

Polite young Year 7 boy clutching a novel: Miss?
Yup?
Miss, can I please have a late note?
Um, for what?
To get into class...
(I check the time: it's 25 minutes AFTER the end of lunch bell)
Lunch finished quite some time ago. 
I know.
So...
So I was reading in one of the seats upstairs Miss, and I didn't hear the bell.

He looks sorta apologetic, and rueful, and what the heck?  Isn't it great to know he was so comfy and happy (in the seats we have scrounged and recovered and set into a reading layout) and had so disappeared into the world of a book that the world beyond didn't register?  Yup.  It is.  A lovely compliment to the library.  He got his late note (with a cheerful explanation for the teacher).  Not that it would be good to be writing them every day, but he was genuine and it was a delightful moment.

The happy life of teacher librarians: best late note ever?

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* 62: Cheap Bookmarks Week (Wednesday)

From an op shop/charity shop/garage sale, find the right sort of dictionary, with pages of reasonably thick paper, and a size of book/column width that lends itself to bookmarks:

...like this one, and you have hundreds of bookmarks for a few dollars.  Just some slicing with the guillotine.  (Or do you have a suitable dictionary that is overdue for being culled?)

Libraries Define Your World:
there's a theme you could tie in with it.  I think definitions have a lot of scope for use for display purposes in libraries.  A department store book section featured this, in big print, high on the wall:

And they used definitions on their lampshades:

There's an idea worth adapting/borrowing: how could you use definition decor in your library?  Think of the rich (and amusing) words you could define.  Not just Book, or Reading.  Student.  Work.  Study.  Learn.  Adventure.  Discover.... lots of potential there, isn't there?

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries, an ongoing series on this blog.

GIFSL* no.56: Valentine's Day 2011

What's a teacher librarian to do to fancy up the library for Valentine's Day? (note: as ever, not just for pretty's sake, but to change the space, add excitement and buzz and encourage reading, to get them through the door.)

Cast your peepers over this idea:

That's made from free stuff, folks.  Catalogue/magazine pages.  The tutorial (and source of the picture) is here  but it's not at all a hard idea to play with.  Is it?  Maybe you've got kids who'd like to help?  Maybe you could have some with the names of favourite books/characters on them?  Maybe...

Go play.  Have fun.  Make your library special for your kids, so they say WOW and love being there.  Isn't that how it should be? And won't that be fun for you too?

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries

GIFSL teaser: what's this for?

Just why did I utter little cries of joy and invest in this fabric at Ikea (it's one colourway/design of Monalis, item no 70175082) to the tune of 5 metres @ $9.99/metre? For my school library?

The colours are perfect!  Look, bird houses, and subtle pink birds, and tree trunks!  Squeee!

Guesses in the comments welcome! (I'll answer, and show you, soon...)

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL*55: Keep Calm and Carry On

It's become very popular, in the last couple of years, the WW2 Keep Calm and Carry On poster.  We have one in the library, a present from Year 12 last year.  The year group and their year adviser really liked the idea expressed and also giving this to the library for the whole school to be able to see, enjoy and think about.  It's a lovely focal point.

This is 2m tall, vinyl over a wooden frame.  Remo General Store has two sizes, Regular and Big (ours is Big): prices range from $165AU to around $600AU, depending if you order it framed (add shipping to those prices - and the framed options are only for Sydney).   They have other vinyl poster designs too.  What's good about vinyl is its durability (no silverfish munching!) - this should last a long time we hope (it doesn't get any direct sun, either).  The link below shows you some of their other vinyl poster designs.  They also stock some other Keep Calm items, such as Tshirts.

OK, so now you're saying OUCH in a big way?  Keep calm....(but don't forget the possibility of seeing if your end-year group, whether it's 6, 10 or 12, needs any suggestions for their School Present...)

There are other options.

• Barter Books in the UK rediscovered this poster (read the story here) and sell copies at a VERY reasonable price (even with postage to Australia).  Keep Calm and Carry On is GBP3.60, and its companion posters, Freedom is in peril, defend it with all your might and Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory are GBP4.60.  They can fit more than one in a mailing tube (ie. keeping postage costs down).  They also have Tshirts, mugs, aprons, postcards and so forth with the Keep Calm design.  Think what you could do with a pack of postcards... (and note that I've given you an excellent bit of info for a trivia night question, with the two companion posters).  Framing doesn't have to cost a bomb: one neat inexpensive trick is to buy a slightly larger frame (I found one in Ikea for under $10), buy a mat board sized to fit the whole frame (ie. no expensive hole-cutting) and put the poster on top of the mat board in the frame.  Easy to switch them around, too.
• Larkmade in Victoria has the poster for $25 plus shipping (poster in a size to fit Ikea Ribba frames) and Keep Calm homewares.  They are also a very charming rural small business worth supporting.
• Real Shopping, an online shop associated with Real Living magazine, has a canvas version (size isn't given, but I'm guessing it's neither tiny nor huge), ready to hang.  $44, free shipping in Australia.

The poster isn't copyright, so there are a gazillion folk out there with versions (some more ethical than others). Try searching http://www.etsy.com/ for "keep calm" and you'll find colour variations, and all sorts of associated merchandise.  Dozens of ways to keep calm.

For a quirky twist, take a squizz at the Flickr pool of design variations - some very clever (hmmm, is there an English writing task possibility there???).  (Be warned, some of the Flickr suggestions are not school-age friendly, so don't show the site without previewing.)

Sometimes, it's handy to look at that big red sign and remind myself to keep calm.  Sometimes, kind kind people point it out to me (can't imagine why...).  Bless their little cotton socks.

Cheers

Ruth

gifsl = good ideas for school  libraries

Designed for Learning: school libraries

As you may know, I've been doing some presenting at conferences and staff development days on "Re-imagining your school library".  (Will be at MANTLE in May).

This 27 minute video (can't embed it, so click here to watch it) is from CILIP in the UK, and is all about the design and functions of 21st century libraries - showing spaces and possibilities, how students and library users find these, what they want, how library staff and teachers find these, what they want.... full of ideas, and SO positive about the IMPORTANCE of school libraries now and into the future as learning spaces.

Watch it.  Definitely.

I'm going to have to watch it more than once, to unpack the ideas and think about how to use them.

Cheers

Ruth

Found via Twitter @sandynay

GIFSL* 54. Manga fabric

Ikea has a new range of fabric with a manga kinda theme (well, nobody said you couldn't combine manga and vikings...!!).  The Charlotta fabrics are designed by Åsa Ekström.

This is Charlotta Teckning:

and this is Charlotta Block:

which as you can see is darker in colour - the range has lighter and darker black and white fabrics in it.

See the whole range here; $8.99/metre, 150cm wide, and pay attention to the repeat if you're sewing it into curtains.

But what's to stop you stapling some over a cheap canvas frame for a wall feature?  Or make three, for greater impact?  Maybe they could highlight your collection of graphic novels and manga and so forth?

If you're after manga in colour, the quilt fabric manufacturer Alexander Henry  (that's the manufacturer website, you would buy from a retailer such as the link given below) often has unusual fabrics, including this one from their Indochine range:

which is available from this online retailer (where I found this image).  $US9.50/yard, 45in/112cm wide.

Cheers

Ruth

Charlotta mages from Ikea's website

GIFSL* 21: Tree (revisited)

In GIFSL (good ideas for school libraries) 21 I mentioned this tree:

I bought one last year (after Easter, on special) for the school library, and it's since graced the table outside my office full of face-up borrow-me impulse-grabbing books.  It's had various things hung on it over that time - bats at Halloween, laminated fabric motifs, book cover and so forth, depending on our themes (with banners/bookmarks).  In fashion parlance, its 'cost-per-wear' has been worth the purchase; it provides a focal point on a table I deliberately keep a tad untidy, so kids don't feel, by browsing, that they're disturbing a neat-and-do-not-touch display.

Bed Bath N Table, the shop from which it came, has three white tree options this Easter.  None are dirt cheap, but I'd point out that one of the attractions of these is their scale/size - they don't get dwarfed in the context of a library.  The above tree is $99.  About the same height, but 3D/in the round is this one:

I don't think I have a spot for it in my library, but it certainly has potential.  Smaller, but not small, is this one at $129:

As I said in my original piece, these aren't specifically Easter - you can tweak the themes to suit yourself.  They do only seem to be on sale (in these larger sizes) at Easter.  So you can buy now and secure one, or wait till the after-Easter discounts and potentially miss out (last year I gambled and won, but it's always a gamble!).

Bed Bath N Table is a chain of shops, but unfortunately they don't have a website/online store.  The shops can order stock in from other shops, though.

No affils or suspect brown paper bags with apple pies or crisp banknotes: we've been happy with ours, and so I thought I'd give you a heads-up, when I saw them again.  Photos taken with permission.

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* 53: Signage: Welcome to fiction

Here's the fiction section one recent afternoon, at the end of the day.  A class has just been in for reading and borrowing, which explains the books on the table.  I'm always pleased to see them disarranged like this, not neatly as I set them out at the start of the period, because it means they've been looked at, picked over, and, for some, borrowed.  (That's why I didn't tidy them before taking the photo - the 'birdseed' caught some 'birds', ha!).  The array put out depends on the class/year group and if the teacher is focusing on a particular genre or topic.

I wanted to improve that back wall.  The Harry Potter hanging cubes were looking a bit faded from being there for a couple of years, and I still had a couple of Welcome signs from a foray to Reverse Garbage - the same aqua style as that in the reading retreat downstairs, near the library entrance foyer.  Took them home for a wash (as they used to be street signs, hanging in Sydney streets with traffic and weather and so forth) and one of my school assistants sewed hanging sleeves on the back top of each.  Two dowel rods, a couple of hooks...

Better, I think.  I like the message for our library users, and the repetition of it.

I utterly understand that this was a lucky find, and you may not be able to have exactly the same banners.  But they are makeable, with fabric; or you could use preprimed canvases, such as those we've used for our major area signs.  And keep your eyes open for things with library potential, because there are lots to be found, in places like Reverse Garbage, and op shops, and garage sales, and things you see in other libraries, and the world all around.

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL good ideas for school libraries

GIFSL* 52: computer furniture on the cheap

Our enquiry terminals upstairs were on rather ratty old study carrel tables (the sort with a veneered wooden top, probably graffiti'ed, and a wooden back, ditto, from earlier service elsewhere).  We wanted to spruce, and have something occupying a bit less space.

Ah, you only have to say the words 'library' and 'furniture' in the same sentence, and you're usually looking at significant dollar signs.  Our budget doesn't stretch to significant dollar signs... 

What about two enquiry terminal stands for under $160 in total?  If you think laterally... I was on the hunt for a while for a solution.  And here it is:

Ikea thinks they're kitchen trolleys, but I didn't think they had to be just that... the lower shelf is an easy spot for the thin client terminal to live, there's enough space on the top for monitor, keyboard and mouse, and they are the right height for standing, doing the enquiry and moving on (rather than sitting and hogging).  Sure, you have to self-assemble, but they weren't too hard to do.  We just varnished them (satin, two coats, sanding between each), thinking that while paint might be fun, it was likely to be more susceptible to inadvertent dings.  They don't LOOK like kitchen trolleys (at least, nobody's commented on that), they're sturdy and they do the job just fine and dandy.

Ikea Bekvam kitchen trolleys are $79 each at Ikea in Sydney.  Check your local, as I know Ikea prices can have some regional variation.

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* no. 52. DIY CD case wall art

From (US) Country Living magazine's look at the Photojojo book, here's an idea to play with.  This link will tell you exactly how to make a collage like the one pictured (and who says it has to be all one photo? and aren't there lots of library-related image possibilities?  oooo yes.). 

The Photojojo site has lots more (free) ideas for playing with photos, and plenty of scope for teacher librarians looking to make their libraries more interesting/engaging/fun.  And once you have your CD cases in place, who says the artwork has to stay the same?

All you need is a little time and some simple items: CD cases, photo paper and cardboard.  Nothing expensive there.

Photos of book covers?  Kids?  Kids reading?  Lots of possibilities...

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL good ideas for school libraries

GIFSL* 51: take photos (with an added bonus: Skerricks: all singing, all dancing live version!)

(Actually, I lie.  No singing, no dancing.)  But it's lovely to have received some invitations to speak at teacher librarian meetings and conferences about re-imagining/enhancing/sprucing your school library.  So if you're going to the Sydney TL conference in Leichhardt in March, the Northern Sydney TL conference in Terrey Hills in March or MANTLE (website will show the 2010 program soon) in Newcastle in May, it will be lovely to meet you.

One of those looked like it might have to be done using the Connected Classrooms videoconferencing and Bridgit, so I would have been at my own school but beamed on a telly with my presentation on a whiteboard at the meeting venue.  Circumstances altered and I'll be able to attend in person, but I'm thinking I'd like to add being able to do that to my skillset.  Always good to learn something new!

I spoke at two conferences last year,  ASLA (NSW) and Western Sydney TL - they were fairly close together in time, so I didn't tweak my presentation enormously between the two (although I did tweak it - there's always something to make better/more effective). It was great to get the positive feedback and know my contribution had been useful.  This week, looking over the presentation (I don't have notes, the PowerPoint is my prompt as I find that more interesting, less 'rote' and besides, like lots of teachers, you switch me on, I talk... and I enjoy public speaking), I can see plenty of room for more tweaking/changing, even though it's only a few months down the track.  New things we've tried.  Improvements to the library.  More goodness to share!

I cannot encourage you enough to take photos of your library.  At least once a term, or more often if you change something (as we do with our foyer/entrance area).  Not only to record what you've done, but also to remind you of the evolution of your library, to see what's better than it was before.  I just wish I'd photographed my current school library when I walked into it first ten years ago, so I could have those photos to compare with how it looks now. 

One of the ways in which this blog has been really useful to me is the way in which providing illustrations for it has made me fish out my camera more often than I might otherwise have done, to catch 'before' shots as well as 'after'.  The camera's lens, and the reality of a photograph, can help see more clearly what one likes and what one would like to change/improve/develop. I've only got to look at the renovation of the library entrance (several entries from May 2009 on the blog illustrate this - use the archives over on the right) for just one example.

Other ways to use photographs (hurrah for the digital camera) include our framed row of student readers and (which used some of those photos again, as well as others taken at lunchtimes etc) our Christmas tree.

Cheers

Ruth


*GIFSL: good ideas for school libraries

GIFSL* 50: The COOL clock

Most school clocks are plain and functional, and there's nothing wrong with that.

But when you're a school library aiming to present an exciting environment for learning, reading, working, being...

...and you go to somewhere like Target when they have one of their semi-regular 40% off all clocks sales...

...which means that for less than thirty dollars you can have a clock like this behind the borrowing desk...

Oh, you'd like a better view?

I know, a plain 'school clock' would do the same job.  So does a plain vanilla anything vs a snazzy version.  But we've had a lot of (spontaneous) positive comments from kids and teachers, for such a simple change (and if you're wondering about the previous one, no clock goes to waste in a school where they're needed for exams as well as on walls).  It adds sizzle to the library for not many dollars and not much time/effort (just keep an eye on those discount store catalogues, or take a look around half-yearly sale time).  Maybe some years down the track it might look dated, but right now it looks modern and has a nice energy to it, with the interlinking design.

If you'd like to explore some fabulous clocks made from recycled junk by Pixelfish  (I only found this Etsy seller after buying our clock), take a look at these:

(screenshot from Pixelfish's store - click this link to see the current selection)

They're fabulous.  Every one a conversation starter and statement of style and panache!

And the day after I drafted this blog entry a colleague came by, commenting on the clock and on the hunt for an interesting/cool one for her husband's birthday - I showed her the Etsy site and her eyes  lit up.  Ha!  The flypaper mind I have proves its worth again... it just amuses me how things coincide, sometimes.

Cheers

Ruth

PS. Will I admit that the fact that you can't tell the time on our new clock to the exact minute is a little bit handy when you've had an extraordinarily busy lunchtime and you want to call pack up time a minute or two early without a charmingly pedantic kid pointing out that you ARE calling pack up time early?  Dunno.  You might think less of me.  But I'd rather tell you the truth... Which is why I didn't make up some ridikkulus guff about the design representing the library linking you to information, or whatever.  Could've - but nah. 

PPS: FIFTY IDEAS FOR SCHOOL LIBRARIES! How cool is that!  Got any particular favourites?  Let me know in the comments...

*GIFSL = Good ideas for school libraries

Does your library greet those who come in?

If you look carefully, the word "Hello" is shaded in grey down this print.  $25 for a decent sized poster (16in x 20in, or 41cm x 51cm), $9.95 for shipping (all prices $US) and does it have graphic impact?  Heck yes!  You can buy from MadebyGirl (and if you get together with a couple of TL pals, or you really want triple impact, postage for three posters is only a couple of dollars more than shipping one). 

Image is from the MadebyGirl site.

Hello in lots of languages - educational too!

There are so many excellent online craft businesses, and plenty of poster ideas that aren't what you see everywhere and which compare favourably in price with the standard 'educational poster suppliers'.  Take a tour through the search engine on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/, for example, and see what you can find to make your library special, exciting, a great place to be. 

Framing can be expensive, but one option to consider is the single large piece of matte board with the poster laid on top, framed in a frame (like this one from Ikea, which is less than $10).  Much better than either laminating or blu-tak.  And, if you want to rotate posters through the same frame, you can.

I found the Hello poster via the design blog decor8.  Here's another poster source from decor8: The Poster List.  Certainly some ideas there worth thinking about for your school/library - modern, cool ideas and images.  Or why not use this to challenge your vis. arts students to come up with images to display in the library?

Cheers

Ruth

PS. I haven't bought yet, because I'm not sure where I'd put it.  But I am tempted - I do like this sort of use of typography, a bit bus-blind in style.  Love vintage bus blinds!

GIFSL* 46: Staple-gun upholstery (with a WOW factor)

If you work in a NSW government school, there's nothing more certain than that you've seen, and sat, in one of these standard-issue low lounge chairs.  They're in staffrooms, hopefully a few in the library, in the common room and so on.

Depending on the age of your school, they may have been supplied to the school when beige, 'sunshine' yellow or a somewhat bilious green was considered just right (the one above, and its beige or yellow cousins at my school are shading thirty years old).  More recent colours are muted greens, blues and ochre-pinks.

The vinyl is, let's face it, practical.  But over time they get marked, and maybe the vinyl has splits here or there.

I was up at Katoomba High late last year, speaking at a conference (about sprucing your library, surprise surprise!) (it went well and I had fun - happy to be a presenter at other TL conferences/inservices...) and saw some of these chairs which had been spruced by the library staff there.

Katoomba High (not us, but our inspiration)

The idea took hold.  While the muted green and blue chairs in our mezzanine reading lounge don't need recovering, I knew of four grotty beige vinyl chairs I could take for the library from where they were languishing elsewhere in the school, too unappealing for anyone to be interested.  As well as hiding the grot, cloth is nicer to sit on.  And we were going to be able to set up another reading lounge, this time upstairs in the fiction section; I didn't seem likely to be able to get more comfy chairs for it in the near future, so needed to be ingenious instead.

Off to Ikea for some furnishing-weight 150cm wide fabric...

This is from a range called Saralisa.  The fabric I chose is the second bottom one (multicolour/orange):

Yup, as seen in sneak peek #1.  Images here from the Ikea Australia website.

A couple of useful hints and tips: I deliberately chose a pattern that didn't need matching.  Much easier.  Colours: these went with the blue wall, green carpet and newer blue chairs, and are dark enough to not show the dirt in five minutes.  We may spray them with a fabric protector such as Scotchgard, but realistically, if we don't, it takes just over a metre of fabric (this fabric is $9.99/m) to do a chair, so about $12 later we can recover them in a year or two anyway, if they need it.

More than practicality, though, this is a mad, wonderful, funky fabric, and the transformation is remarkable. 

Don't you think so? The kids do. And pretty much everyone else who's seen them - WOW! is a common reaction. We recovered several chairs before the end of last term, and a sort-out elsewhere in the school (or previously untapped chair-whispering skills on my part) brought us four more bright yellow ones just as term ended.

What do you need?  A bit over a metre of 150cm wide decent-weight fabric per chair.  A staple gun or trigger tacker, sharp scissors for cutting fabric (paper/cardboard blunts scissors, so your usual library scissors may struggle).  A cordless drill/screwdriver for getting the screws out and back in.  Some of that wide tough book repair tape, if your chairs have any splits needing repair.

Another tip: pay attention to which screws come from where, so you put them back in the same place, as they aren't necessarily interchangeable.  Maybe do one seat at a time.

I'm not going to give detailed instructions: basically, you're unscrewing the two cushions from the metal frame, covering two rectangles (we went right over the top of the vinyl), aiming to turn under/staple down any raw edges, then reassembling the chair.  It isn't grand upholstery, but it's do-able and has fabulous results.  As you can see! 

We didn't refinish the dark brown metal framework of the chairs in any way - just the revamp was enough to make the chairs special.

Before term ended, one faculty had already recovered their yellow vinyl lounge chairs in another Saralisa fabric (we have green carpet, they have green vinyl...:

...and during the holidays, another faculty went from yellow chairs to these (they have blue carpet):

...which also uses Ikea fabric, from a range called Inger.  I wouldn't be surprised if more around the school got this treatment - at about $12 a chair, with equipment to hand in schools, what's not to like? Although I think I've sabotaged any possibility of acquiring any more chairs from within the school, now people have seen what's possible.

The blue/black/white Inger chairs are in the Visual Arts faculty, which also now has a word wall, after seeing our library word walls.  They went with the wonderful vocabulary of colour names.

It's lovely to have the library inspiring renovation elsewhere in the school again (chairs, word walls... and other areas have been painted after seeing what we've done inside and out).  I have great colleagues, and we all work hard for our kids.

Many many many thanks to the Katoomba High school library staff for inspiring this Good Idea!

Cheers

Ruth

PS these chairs are for a new (changed) area in the library - I'll show you soon...

PPS. Snaffle every chair you can from around your school BEFORE renovating, because it's harder to get 'em after everyone else sees what's possible...!!

PPPS. We'd love to read your comments....

*GIFSL = Good ideas for school libraries

Popping in during the summer holidays

Near the end of an excellent summer break (they're all excellent; it's only the young who find them long and boring... miss, I was bored and was glad the holidays were over.  Crazy kids!  Us old folk revel in the time!!) I've popped into school for a few hours several days this week.  I won't get everything done that I would like to, but a few things are sorted.

Would you like some sneak peeks at some of the changes from the end of last term and finds from the holidays? There's been some working and some renovating and some excellent discoveries...

Peek #1 (where's that been used?)

Peek #2 (what's the keyboard on?) (and do you appreciate the holiday key choice/allusion??)

Peek #3 (four shelf units in fiction, not three? but only three fit in, before...)

Peek #4 (a desk with a creative twist...)

Peek #5 (improving the view)

Peek #6 (now where will you find this, six times?)

Peek #7 (love the post-Christmas sale at Ikea!)

Peek #8 (maybe these will, or maybe not, but the kids will enjoy them)

Peek #9 (what's this for?)

Peek #10 (what's the plan for this?)

Peek #11 (today's find)

But what does it all MEAN?  (Do comment if you wish to! - hmmm, if anyone gets most or all right, I might even find a prize of some sort).  Stay tuned to Skerricks in 2010 to find out more.  I've already started on entries which will roll out after school goes back, the day after Australia Day (OK, Australia Day is 26 January, for those outside Oz).

In the strange but true department, I took a batch of chocolate brownies to share with the cleaners/general assistants at school, and just look at the shape left after they'd been (first) attacked:

...squint and it's sorta kinda a map of the US.  It didn't stay that way for long... Now it's maybe a map of Vatican City; or possibly an uninhabited section of the Pacific - ie a clean plate.

Enjoy the end of the hols (if you're on hols like we are still, woohoo!), see you next week...

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* 45: School Library Christmas Trees: 1

Who'd have one Christmas tree when more will do??

Reading the Christmas issues of Australian magazines such as Inside Out (their Christmas issue this year was brilliant!) and Home Beautiful, I came across this idea:

.

...and I got to thinking.  It's got potential, but a I need a blank wall. 

In the library entrance.

Where we've painted a word wall, and I ain't stickin' anything on that...

but

I don't have to, do I?

Because if you turn around our ever-useful bookcase...

...you have a blank wall.  Yay!

And then if you buy a length of wide creamy white quilt wadding, and use a couple of bulldog clips, you have a background (if you're really indulgent, and squint, you might think, very vaguely, of snow.  Not that there's any of that around here, we've been having hot hot days over 30degC, a warm start to summer).

Christmas cards? Meh. What is one of the things ornamenting the library?

Our beautiful students, of course!  I took a bunch of photos of kids in the library, got them printed as 4in x 6in photos (less than 20c each) and just used white ball-head pins to attach them to the wadding.

Here's the result:

.

.

We outlined it in a simple ball-garland, added a couple of decorations and some low-voltage fairy lights under the wadding at the base of the tree, and there you are.

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The kids love to see themselves and their friends; it's also a message to them that we value them (another bit of library PR - there are so many ways to welcome and encourage kids, and thus get them in the door and using the library, discovering the library, being happy in the library.  If you're happy somewhere, you're more likely to come back...).  Any of our 'decorating' is never just pretty-pretty - it's for educational reasons, and judging by the library usage, they're working as we intend.  I've had some commentary from a couple of presentations I've done recently where people have said they  'don't have time for this decorating stuff', which is why I make this point.  How many libraries do you know that are stale and old and boring (not to mention school blocks, school classrooms...); do you like walking into stale and old and boring places?  Do you want to?  Do you want to stay, or explore them?  Why would kids be any different?

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(In case you wondered, most of the commentary after those presentations has been overwhelmingly positive, which is great! - it's been fun to share our journey and ideas with other teacher librarians.)

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The Christmas banners are made from Snoa fabric from Ikea's Christmas 2009 range ($9.99 per metre).  While the heart is a great graphic image, our two pillars are actually different heights.  Making each banner with a single heart and a co-ordinating fabric below means that you can't tell (as you could if we had used all the heart fabric and had a big half-heart on a banner - and who wants to be half-hearted?!).

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I've shown you a number of our banners on Skerricks this year - use that search box up on the left to find them (they're also under the library display tag).  The first blog entry about banners, which included sewing instructions, is here.  We've done a few, and will use them again through next year.

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At the end of term, we'll fold away these Christmas banners and wadding; next year, take more photos, and be able to put up banners and the new edition of the tree of kids (our only cost being the photos), easy-peasy!

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I'll take photos of our other trees and blog them before the end of term.

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We'd love to read your comments...

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Cheers

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Ruth

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* GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries