I love mixing things up a bit in the library. Not too much - as it's great when children know where to find books - but enough to keep it interesting. I have a display shelf that I use for this purpose. This year, I'm running a theme called "Authors Around the Alphabet".
Every couple of weeks or so, I change the display around, so that it features authors whose last name starts with a letter in the alphabet. We've been through A, B, C, D and we're up to E & F. You can just imagine all the wonderful picture book and chapter book authors that I've had on display.
How it works:
- When a class comes in they usually get seated on the mat. I often chat to them and offer to read them a story. I will point out anything new on the main wall display (eg. Inquiry topic books, book award displays, etc). Then I'll say - "Now, in Authors around the Alphabet, we're up to..."
- This gives me an opportunity to point out some of the authors' names and their wonderful books to the children, so that they can start making connections and finding favourite authors. It helps to circulate books so that many older books get a chance to be featured and be on face out display.
- I chat to the children about how one letter on the spine signifies that the book is a picture book and three letters, being the first three letters of the authors' name, shows that it is a chapter book. So there is a wee library lesson in there too. If the children are young, I might chat to them about the sound of the letter too.
- Then I'll dive in and read them a book from the display, and invite them to borrow books from there.
So far we've really enjoyed books by Pamela Allen, Aaron Blabey, Anthony Browne, Joy Cowley, Julia Donaldson, Lynley Dodd and Ian Falconer, to name a few.
I'm really enjoying this little excercise. It offers teachable moments about how the library works, and introduces the concept of authors. I get excited when I discover books I haven't read aloud before too. Such fun!
