Crack the Case Book Fair

We recently held a mystery-themed book fair. Here are some pictures of our decorations.

After the book fair was set up, I held a staff preview. There was a "pop secret" popcorn bar, and teachers were invited to create a wish box of books they wanted for their classroom library.

I created a book fair website though Canva to inform our staff and caregivers about the book fair. The website includes a class shopping schedule, volunteer sign up, and directions to set up Kid Credit for students to shop with a preauthorized credit card. The proceeds from this book fair will fund an author visit and new library books.

Mooove It to the Book Fair!

We recently held a farm-themed book fair. Here are some pictures of our decorations.

My district uses Bedford Falls Book Fairs. This company sets up the book stands and book carts when they deliver the fair. There are very few boxes with products to set up on tables.

I created a book fair website to inform our staff and caregivers about the book fair. The website includes a class shopping schedule, volunteer sign up, and directions to set up Kid Credit for students to shop with a preauthorized credit card. The proceeds from this book fair will purchase the new state book award titles and books for our book club to read next year.

Reading Is Our Superpower Book Fair

We recently held our fall book fair. The theme was Reading Is Our Superpower! Here are some pictures of our decorations.

My district uses Bedford Falls Book Fairs. This company sets up the book stands and book carts when they deliver the fair. Here are pictures of our set up. We used black butcher paper to cover the shelves behind the carts and added space themed cut outs to draw attention to the books.

I created a book fair website to inform our staff and caregivers about the book fair. The website includes a class shopping schedule, volunteer sign up, and directions to set up Kid Credit for students to shop with a preauthorized credit card.

The proceeds from this book fair will help us purchase new nonfiction books for our library!

Reading Is Out of This World Book Fair

We recently held our spring book fair. The theme was Reading Is Out of This World! Here are some pictures of our decorations. We also turned out the lights in the hall and used a light to project stars onto the ceiling. 

My district is using Bedford Falls Book Fairs this year. This company sets up the book stands and book carts when they deliver the fair. Here are pictures of our set up. We used black butcher paper to cover the shelves behind the carts and added space themed cut outs to draw attention to the books.

The top selling books for our younger students were the National Geographic Kids readers, and the top selling books for our older students were Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea by Dav Pilkey and The Tryout by Christina Soontornvat.

I created a book fair website to inform our staff and caregivers about the book fair. The website includes a class shopping schedule, volunteer sign up, and directions to set up Kid Credit for students to shop with a preauthorized credit card.

The proceeds from this book fair will help us purchase new books and other supplies for our library!

Shanda McCloskey Author Visit

We recently hosted author and illustrator Shanda McCloskey! I have been talking to Shanda for a few years about coming to our school, and we finally made it happen this year. Shanda lives in our county and went to high school with some of our teachers.

Shanda is the author and illustrator of Doll-E 1.0 and T-Bone the Drone. She also illustrated Bedtime Ballet, Little Red and the Big Bad Editor, and Nubby. Shanda and her husband created a website called Author Visit Central to help schools with book sales for author visits. We offered book sales through this site, so all I had to do was promote book sales! Shanda provided a flyer and a link to purchase books. When she arrived, all the books were already signed and organized by grade level to make it easier for me to deliver them to students.

Shanda's website contains thorough descriptions of all her programs. We selected Rad Robots for kindergarten through second grade and Be a Big Rad Editor for third through fifth grade. Both programs were engaging and fun! At the end, Shanda led a drawing lesson for students. One of the most memorable moments from the day was when a fifth grader stayed behind after his class's session. 

Reading Is Sweet Book Fair

We recently held our spring book fair. Scholastic is not providing themes for their book fairs at this time. So I decided to use Reading Is Sweet as the theme. Our students, teachers, and parents loved the theme! The bright colors in the decorations looked so happy. 

During this fair, I was finally able to have volunteers again! Our parents helped students add up the cost of their selected items and compare the total to the amount of money they had to spend. This helped our line move faster since students already knew they had enough money to buy their items when they got to the register.

Before the fair, a colleague helped me set up eWallet accounts for all of our teachers. I linked these to a special website designed to provide information about the fair. Many of our families donated to the teacher eWallets. The teachers who received donations were able to purchase new books for their classroom libraries. In addition to eWallet links, the website also contained links to the book fair homepage, book highlights, class shopping schedule, and volunteer sign up. Click here to see the website.

To generate excitement about the fair, my PTA had our school spirit rock painted with the book fair theme. Also, I asked a teacher at my school create t-shirts for a parapro who helps out in the media center and myself.

Scholastic is currently experiencing supply chain issues, so we did not have the same amount of books and school supplies to sell that we usually receive. Even so, this book fair was very successful! We made enough money to purchase quite a few new books for the media center.

Victoria Kann Virtual Author Visit

We virtually hosted author Victoria Kann on October 7! Victoria is the author and illustrator of the wildly popular Pinkalicious books. Victoria joined us from her home studio on Microsoft Teams, which allowed students from all over our district to participate in the event. 

Victoria's presentation focused on her new book Rubylicious. In this book, Pinkalicious is searching for stones for her rock collection when a surprise pops out suddenly! Rocky is here to grant Pinkalicious and her brother Peter one wish, and one wish only, so they must choose wisely. This book has a wonderful message about how being selfless can be its own best reward. The bright, colorful illustrations add to the engaging story.

Victoria's presentation was perfect for our kindergarten through second grade students. She started by talking about her books and asked students to wiggle their ears, shake their hands, etc. if they had read the books. Then she read Rubylicious and finally students asked questions. Best of all, Victoria's visit was sponsored by FoxTale Book Shoppe. We are so fortunate to have a local book store that connects our students to authors. I know they will remember "meeting" Victoria for many years to come!