📕✎Graphic Novel Showcase: Exploring Stories through Art & Text

Today's Graphic Novel Showcase brought nearly 20 students together to explore the incredible variety of stories told in this format. With six different categories of graphic novels featured, students had the freedom to rotate through groups at their own pace, discovering new titles and styles along the way. From the newest additions in the collection to action-packed adventures, from diverse perspectives to true stories, there was something for everyone—whether they were longtime graphic novel fans or just starting to explore the format.

To make the experience even more interactive, students could participate in a scavenger hunt, working independently or with a partner to find specific elements within the books they browsed. This encouraged close reading and an appreciation for how art and text work together to tell a story. 

What made the event even more dynamic was the mix of participants—enthusiastic graphic novel readers shared their recommendations alongside students who were new to the format. Seeing these conversations unfold, with students pointing out favorite moments or talking about the story, was a reminder of how engaging graphic novels can be for readers.

This event was all about choice, exploration, and community, and it was amazing to see students discover books they might not have picked up otherwise. With so much enthusiasm in the room, it’s clear that graphic novels continue to be a valuable and beloved part of our library’s collection!

📖✨ 6-Word Book Talks: Quick Hooks for Engaging Reads

In a recent advisory session, students were introduced to more than two dozen books in a fast, engaging format—6-Word Book Talks. Each book was distilled into just six words, offering a quick glimpse into its core themes, intrigue, or emotional impact. These short but powerful teasers were presented in a series of Slides, giving students an easy way to preview a wide range of books across all eight fiction genres, as well as graphic novels and nonfiction selections.

After viewing the presentation, students had time to browse the featured books, flipping through pages, reading summaries, and seeing which stories sparked their interest. 

Students looking online or already reading with the featured books in the background.

Other students browsing the cases as time allowed.

With something for everyone—from thrilling mysteries to heartfelt contemporary reads, epic fantasies to eye-opening nonfiction—this session encouraged exploration and discovery. Sometimes, all it takes is six words to spark curiosity, and this format proved to be a fun, effective way to get books into students' hands! 

🎨🌌 Art & Inquiry: Exploring the Northern Lights

This week in advisory, students embarked on a dazzling journey to learn about the Northern Lights! (Thank you to The Book Wrangler's online content years ago for the inspiration!) Using engaging resources like Wonderopolis and PebbleGo, they discovered the science and stories behind this natural phenomenon. These resources provided the perfect balance of information and wonder, sparking questions and discussion.

After diving into the facts, it was time for creativity to take center stage. Students used paper and pastels to craft their own vibrant interpretations of the Northern Lights. As different YouTube videos about the Northern Lights played in the background, like the one below, students' creativity took over.

With soft hues blending across dark backgrounds, their artwork captured the magic of the auroras. This hands-on activity connected inquiry with artistry, leaving students with both knowledge and a personal art piece. Activities like these showcase the power of combining literacy, creativity, and discovery in library spaces!

🎃👻 Dark Tales and Digital Reflections: A Halloween Activity

Yesterday’s Halloween advisory session took a spine-tingling turn as students gathered in the library for a read-aloud from Things That go Bump in the Night by Patrick Carman. 

We kicked things off with an introductory video before diving into the story “Heart of Stone,” a creepy, captivating short story. After the read-aloud, students watched the story’s wrap-up video, setting the perfect atmosphere for a reflective activity. Using Padlet, students responded to the prompt “Whatever you do…” with creative, eerie responses that tied directly to the story. To bring their words to life, students typed their thoughts and used the Padlet AI image generator to create visuals related to their statements, resulting in a hauntingly engaging mix of text and imagery.

CLICK HERE to access the full Padlet of students' responses.

Here are a few of the students' responses close up:

This activity not only added Halloween fun to an advisory session but also supports my professional development goal of promoting positive relationships, mindfulness, and bibliotherapy in the library. By choosing thought-provoking stories and prompts, students engaged in reflective thinking and shared their creative responses with their peers in a supportive environment. The visual component helped them connect with the story on a deeper level, allowing for self-expression and opening doors to conversations that promote empathy and connection. A big "thank you" goes to my teacher librarian colleague Dani whose work with Padlet and image generating inspired me to give this a try!

National Hispanic Heritage Month & Book Tasting

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15 - October 15 annually, so this week, we hosted a special book tasting in the library to celebrate! Students had the chance to sample a variety of books, each showcasing Hispanic authors, characters, or historical figures. 

The selection included fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels, giving everyone a diverse range of genres and stories to explore. From narratives about identity and culture to historical accounts, these books offered something for every reader. 

The tasting sparked great conversations and curiosity, and many students left with new books in hand to continue their reading journey. What a fantastic way to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month!

👀😍 Button Making is a Hit with Students!

Such a fun advisory activity today with the button maker! It's the first-ever use for the button maker, and based on the smiles and conversation, it's likely that button making will be a regular event during this time!

Last spring the library acquired this button maker in hopes of offering a different kind of activity during advisory. While students often visit during advisory for literacy-based activities, the button maker offers a making and creative outlet for students. After some browsing and learning about different options, this is the button maker purchased:

Find it HERE on Amazon.com

To streamline the process--we have a 25-minute advisory period--tables in the library each held part of the button-making process: sizing (two button sizes were offered today), designing (either hand-drawn or chosen from books), cutting out the design, and making the button.

Students began working, choosing sizes and designing. Once circle were cut out, an efficient button making line formed. Many students created and took with them two buttons today and asked about the next button making session! Lots of smiles and giggles about buttons--a wonderful way to kick off advisory activities for the week!

🌟💻 Exciting First Adventure with AI!

It's hard to read anything about schools and libraries or scroll through social media and *not* read about AI. I've been fascinated about AI's potential in classrooms and in the library, and with encouragement from a colleague, I've joined the world of SchoolAI to find ways to engage and inspire students beyond the traditional classroom setting and learning. Today was my first foray into AI with students, and I'm hooked!

SchoolAI offers tools and resources for teachers, as well as Spaces to share with students. For our first endeavor with AI, I decided to have students try an already-created Choose Your Own Adventure activity that uses AI-powered prompts and guides students on a journey of creativity and exploration. With student input, we developed a 6-item list of topics that appealed to them: pets, food, music, travel, hobbies, and gaming. Students narrowed the list to their three favorites before narrowing the list to the winning topic--hobbies.

Using either the SchoolAI-generated web address or QR code, students accessed the hobbies-themed adventure, immersing themselves in a world where the boundaries of imagination knew no limits. Armed with curiosity and a sense of adventure, students eagerly experimented with different prompts, eager to see where the AI would take them. So many great conversations about how to prompt the AI, especially when the AI placed students in a world or offered hobbies students didn't want or weren't interesting to them!

What made this experience truly great was the freedom and flexibility it offered students. Don't want to move through a fantasy setting? Prompt the AI. Don't like the hobby options it suggested? Prompt the AI. Looking for a certain type of hobby? Prompt the AI! Unlike traditional classroom activities, where the path and outcome may be predetermined, this Choose Your Own Adventure with AI allowed students to take control of their own narratives, shaping the story with each prompt they chose. This prompt writing and rewriting and revising is definitely an added benefit to the activity as it pushed students to think about word choice and clarity when generating a new prompt.

Another benefit to using SchoolAI is that the students' interactions with the bot are saved, and as the teacher, I can see a brief analysis of students' engagement, and I can also see their chats. SchoolAI offers an overview of the students' participation, like these seen below:

Chats between student and chatbot are also available to access:

Seeing students' enthusiasm and curiosity come to life in such a tangible way as they interacted with the AI was great! It reaffirmed my belief in the power of technology to inspire, empower, and transform the learning experience, opening doors to new possibilities, as well as technological and learning adventures.

So, what's next? With so many AI tools and possible interactions to consider, the journey continues, full of possibilities waiting to be discovered. And as the students and I embark on this exciting new chapter, I invite you to join us on this AI journey, where the only limit is our imagination!

🌐 🙌 Celebrating Diversity Through Book Trailers

A celebration of diversity and inclusivity has been underway these last two weeks as the student body celebrates Culture Week. Students could sign up to watch book trailers featuring stories with diverse characters and written by diverse authors. With each click of the play button, students embarked on a journey of exploration, delving into the district voices and experiences that make up the literary world.

To access the document, click HERE.

These powerful narratives--many of them new books in the collection--explored themes of identity and belonging or were heartwarming tales of friendship and resilience. Students were not only entertained but also enlightened, gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation for the diverse perspectives that shape our society.

In our library, diversity isn't just celebrated; it's embraced wholeheartedly as we strive to create an inclusive space where every student feels seen, heard, and valued. When offering book trailers featuring diverse voices, we aim to spark curiosity, empathy, and a lifelong love of reading. So come join us on this journey of discovery as we celebrate the beauty of diversity through the pages of our books this week during Culture Week and every week. Happy viewing! 📚✨

📚✨YA Literature Trivia

What better way to head into spring break than with an enthusiastic round of YA Lit Trivia during advisory! The library recently hosted a trivia event that students could choose as an advisory offering, and based on their enthusiasm, more trivia events will follow!

Two rounds of 10 questions pitted students against each other in rounds centered on both classic and contemporary young adult literature. Students could choose to work individually or in teams--and name themselves in clever and "punny" ways.

Teams dove into the depths of general literature trivia as well as character trivia. The event not only highlighted the joy of reading but also fostered a sense of community as shared their experiences and passion for some of the titles. (The Outsiders and Dally and Ponyboy! Scythe! Brian and the Hatchet series!) Winners celebrated their literary knowledge and could choose a prize from The Prize Vault, 😀 leaving everyone with smiles on their faces and a renewed appreciation for the magic found within the pages of our library's collection.

The Trivia Extravaganza was more than a competition; it was a shared experience of friendly rivalry and a collective love for the written word. Until the next literary challenge, happy reading!

💗📘 Heart Book Recommendations

Our library was buzzing with creativity last week, thanks to an awesome book craft that our students recently took on. (Thanks, Lacey Librarian, for sharing the activity!) Imagine a world where book recommendations take on a whole new shape – literally! 💗✨

During advisory students dove into the world of crafting with enthusiasm, turning their love for books into 3D heart-shaped book recommendations. Each heart not only showcased their ratings for the book but also held a special place for summaries and favorite parts. From fantasy realms to mystery adventures, the diversity of genres reflected in these heart-shaped recommendations was surprising. It's great to see how our students bring their favorite reads to life through art. Not only did this craft unleash their creativity in the short time we had to create them, but it also sparked conversations about the books at the tables where they worked.

These heart-shaped book recommendations are now displayed at the front desk for everyone to read and enjoy. It's a visual celebration of the diverse tastes and interests of our reading community. Swing by the library, take a look at the hearts, and maybe discover a new book to fall in love with. Who knows, you might just find your next favorite read! 💖📖

Keep reading, keep creating, and keep spreading the love for books! 📚✨

Students Take the Lead

In the last two months, several students have offered to lead different advisory sessions on topics they're interested in or excited to share with others. Usually once a week, different students have stepped forward to showcase their interests or teach something to their peers.

Topics have included subjects like unusual animal facts and different varieties of frogs, the longest words--we even practiced saying them together!--favorite television shows, women leaders and pioneers, and creating online content. Students sign up to sit in on the sessions, and at the end of their peers' presentations, there have been great questions, interesting connections shared, and appreciative applause. What a great way to celebrate kids' interests and passions in an inviting environment! 

Wrapping up Women's History Month

As the end of March nears, students could choose to participate in an advisory activity related to Women's History Month. Like other activities students have chosen in the past, this was also a Google Slides 1-pager with hyperlinks that students could access.

While many of the women included were familiar to students, some were not, so after a brief discussion highlighting some main points about the women, students had time to click, watch, and read.

Interested in using the 1-pager? It's available online through my TPT store. If you have questions, please reach out!

Makers Gonna Make!

Recently students could sign up to attend a makerspace/making session during advisory, and every available space was filled with students eager to use the 3D pens or felt.

Many of these students participated in makerspace activities in their Literacy Studies class in the Middle School, so the 3D pens were familiar to them. Felting, however, is a newer offering, but several students had felted in the past. Because of their experience, students had most of a 25-minute period to plan and begin their projects. As they weren't able to finish in one session, students returned this week to wrap up their work. Take a look! 👀

All About Sloths!

Because of a variety of scheduling needs, our advisory time hasn't allowed for students to visit the library until this week. Today, students could choose a read-aloud and 1-pager activity based on sloths!

As these activities often begin with a children's book, today was no different! First, we read the book Sparky! by Jenny Offill & Chris Appelhans. (There's even a shout-out to school librarians in it!) :)

After the read aloud, students accessed a 1-pager about sloths. In addition to a link to the sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica, students could also click on a virtual room from My Ed Tech World that featured several activities, videos, and articles about sloths.

CLICK HERE to access the 1-pager

Students had several minutes to explore the different links, and many chose to work their way through a digital breakout from the virtual room. Another successful 1-pager in advisory!