Read Across America Celebration

Yesterday, the library included bridge-crossing trolls and clever goats to celebrate Read Across America 2026. The read aloud became an engaging experience that brought the magic of literature to life for students.

We dove into the hilarious and suspenseful retelling of The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Mac Barnett. To make the "trip-trap" of the hooves and the grumbles of the troll even more real, we used Novel Effect. (Shout out to Lacey Librarian!) This app uses voice-recognition technology to play synchronized music and sound effects during the read aloud, turning the shared reading into a cinematic event.

The fun didn't stop when the book closed! Each student accessed a digital 1-pager to help them continue their reading journey. This resource includes direct links to some of our absolute favorite interactive read-aloud sites:

• BookFlix: Where stories and non-fiction pair up for double the fun.

• Storyline Online: Famous actors reading beloved picture books.

• PebbleGo: Perfect for our curious researchers looking for animal facts.

• Mackin’s Storyteller Spotlight: Engaging videos from the creators behind the books.

It's always fun when former elementary library students join me in the library for read alouds like these! After doing several throughout the school year, many are "repeat customers" during AO and bring their friends! 

🎃👻 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!

📚 Using Nonfiction Children's Books

Often during our advisory offerings, students can select a library activity that includes a combination of print or electronic books, videos, and articles or websites related to a timely topic. Recently, students could sign up for AO's related to the children's books Snowflake Bentley and A Tower of Giraffes.

In each session, students listened to read-alouds of the books to start the sessions, paying attention to the sidebars in Snowflake Bentley and to the illustration style in A Tower of Giraffes. Students then accessed the Google Draw one-pager related to each book.

Access the one-pager HERE

Access the one-pager HERE

Taking inspiration from choice boards, one-pagers usually include video links, articles, or links to official sites when applicable. Students then have time to read about and watch related content as they choose. Other timely one-pagers that included children's picture books included topics such as these:

• National Reptile Awareness Day (blog post) that incorporated several different fiction children's books featuring a variety of reptiles
• Roller coasters (blog post) that included Marla Frazee's book Roller Coaster
• Chocolate (one-pager) that included the Who Was? biography of Milton Hershey
• Mo Willems's Pigeon (one-pager) featuring several Pigeon books

With many more weeks of school to come, children's book one-pagers are sure to continue as AO offerings. Stay tuned!

Who Knew?! 🐸🐢🦎

Today we celebrate National Reptile Awareness Day--who knew? :) To have a little fun with this "holiday," students could choose to visit the library during advisory today for a variety of activities related to the day.

Thanks to friend and colleague Lacey_Librarian, several children's books featuring reptiles were available for students to look at and read.

We picture walked our way through all of them, and we looked specifically at Art & Max by David Wiesner. Students could later look through any of the books should they choose to do so.

Also, students had access to a Google Draw one-pager with links and videos related to reptiles. 

You can access the one-pager HERE.

If you're looking for a book with reptiles, our MackinVIA catalog offers some nonfiction titles, and here in the library we have a few fiction titles with reptiles, including dragons! Why not stop by to see what's available? Happy Reptile Awareness Day!