5 Activities For Classroom Libraries
The classroom library is a very important resource for children’s learning. In addition, it is a fundamental tool for the development of their reading ability. However, many schools do not even have this tool and those that do, sometimes do not use this resource so much as to take full advantage of it.
The differences between the school library and the classroom library are very clear and determined. Therefore, on this occasion, we will focus on establishing and developing a series of activities for classroom libraries.
These activities will enhance children’s reading. For this, a space in the classroom will be reserved so that the children also know, in turn, all the benefits that this place will offer them.
Activities for classroom libraries
Create character for the library
The first of the activities for classroom libraries that we propose is to create a character who is the director of the library and accompanies the children during all the activities.
This choice, beyond the destination they have, is an ideal activity for the little ones to express their imagination and show their creativity while instilling values such as respect and teamwork.
Once the character has been chosen among all the students, other complementary activities can be done, such as putting it on a mural next to the classroom library or a bookmark with the design of said character.
See collections
For the children to begin to have contact with the library and, more specifically, to begin to know the books it is composed of, an activity will be carried out aimed at a first approach. To do this, depending on the needs of the teacher, each day, or each week, a book belonging to a different collection will be chosen.
In school libraries, normally, collections such as El Barco de Vapor by the SM publishing house or the Anaya publishing house stand out.
For this reason, every day or every week it may be destined to get to know the different books and collections, but also the different children’s publishers.
“Convénceme tú”, one of the most complete classroom library activities
Depending on the age of the children, there are numerous activities that can be done to encourage the use of the library. For example, if the students are established readers around the age of 8, this activity will seem extremely fun, since it consists of choosing a book as a team and, after reading it, convincing others that their book is the best and that they they have to read it.
With the help of the teacher, who will lead and moderate the debate, students will be able to express themselves orally while fostering a love of reading. It is important that the children themselves choose the book so that it motivates and encourages them to read.
Create your own story
Written and plastic expression are other facets that should be encouraged and worked the most during school education and, above all, during primary education. The activity that we propose below will draw the children’s attention, since, based on a title given by the educator, the students will have to create their own story.
To do this, the class will be divided between students who want to develop the story through writing and those who want to do it through illustrations. Once finished, the book will be bound and, if the possibility exists, a copy will be created for each student.
However, the activity does not end here since, to encourage reading, each class will create a different book and, once finished, these will be exchanged between classes and it will be that classmate’s book that will be used in the classroom library .
In search of the treasure-book
Knowing and managing the books in the classroom library is essential for children to interact with this space. For this reason, playing a search and find game will be one of the most fun activities for them and, at the same time, it will provide them with more information about the content of the classroom library.
A specific cover, an author, a prominent character in a book or a title are some of the possibilities that the teacher has for students to search and find. All this always applied to the books that the library contains.
Ultimately, we hope that these classroom library activities have served as inspiration to carry them out with students and to create new ones from them. What are you waiting to put them into practice?
