Awareness & Volunteer Activities

Choose an important social issue, such as child labor, every month and hold an awareness event. Select relevant books to feature as part of a must-read list and find a community leader to give a talk in the school library on the last Friday of the month. Hold an essay contest regarding a topic during the month and award a prize to winning essay. Or, choose an organization and hold a fundraiser or volunteer project. Another idea is to hold a book drive and ask students to donate used books. Have older students sign up to volunteer in an adult literacy program, helping adults learn to read.

Advertisement

Theme Weeks

To encourage students to read books on all different subjects, feature a different theme each week or month. Base activities for that month on the theme you select. Set up a story time to read your favorite children’s book on that subject aloud to help interest even the youngest library patrons.

Book Mobile

A bookmobile is a neighborhood drive-through and drop-off of books. Those who run bookmobiles typically choose low-income and at-risk neighborhoods where kids are least likely to have access to books. Similar to an ice cream truck, the driver of the bookmobile will stop at different points throughout the neighborhood and let children choose from a selection.

Reading Workshops

Students who need help mastering reading- or writing-related skills could find a monthly workshop helpful. Devote a few hours a month (after school) to leading a workshop on skills such as creative writing, reading comprehension, standardized test-taking or speed-reading. For younger students, offer help with writing in cursive, forming letters or reading aloud. Ask older, high-achieving students to lead the workshops. Provide the workshops free of charge and serve light refreshments.

Historical Database

Students can gather general information about older residents of the neighborhoods around them, ask them about the development of the local neighborhoods through time and ask questions about historical events that older community members have lived through. After gathering this information in interviews, students can make professional text and audio documentation that will be kept in the school library.

Online information sources, its search and evaluation

Activities can be made to teach the students to develop the online searching skills and the habit of evaluating it by using certain criteria. The teacher can accompany the child in his/her cyber journey. She can make directories of useful websites and compare two sites on the same topic with each other and with the authoritative printed versions of reference books available in the library. Children can be given projects on finding the information required through search engines.

Community Resources

Community resources are human, institutional and material resources that are available in the community where the school is located. Parents who are working in different professions such as lawyers, engineers, doctors, scientists, media persons, artists, counsellors, psychologists, bank officers, post masters, social workers etc are invited into classes. Students are allowed to freely interact with them. Discussions are held on their professions and its responsibilities. Institutional resources such as museums, galleries, factories, farms, offices etc are also visited by the students. The teacher may collect the contact details of the community resources and information regarding their availability for future use. 8 Outcome: Students will get knowledge about various professions and career opportunities. They understand social, cultural and institutional structures of the world outside the school.

Using Weblogs (Blogs)

Blogs are web diaries where posts are appeared in a reverse chronological order. It can be created easily on platforms such as Blogger, Typepad and WordPress. The class library can start blogs which deals with reading, book discussions and daily library activities. Students can post their book reviews on it and earn wider audience from around the world. (e.g.:www.librarykvpattom.wordpress.com)