April is School Library Month! The first School Library Month took place in 1985 with the theme “Where Learning Never Ends: The School Library Media Center” and was spearheaded by Lucille Thomas, chair of the School Library Media Month Committee. This year, choose your own theme to celebrate School Library Month! The American Association of School Libraries offers a variety of resources to help you celebrate, like graphics, PowerPoint templates, posters, PSAs, and resources to help you plan your celebration around a variety of themes. Celebrations can take many forms – you have a whole month to fill!
There are lots of great ideas available to help you plan your celebration. School Library Month is a great time to advocate for your library and the services and resources available. Let everyone know why your library is so amazing and celebrate with students using contests and games they’ll love. Teach them something new about libraries or plan some special library lessons. Whether you are virtual or in-person, have some fun with your celebration!
What better way to celebrate School Library Month than to celebrate and read! Host a book tasting, plan a school wide book challenge, or handout a mini book challenge. Encourage students to share book reviews or create book trailers. Share booklists with students, like the state book award lists or more specialized lists like the ProjectLit list. Attend a virtual spring book and author festival or do something as simple as making time for students to read.
As always, TeachersFirst is a great first stop for resources! Check out this Twitter chat archive called “National Library Week and School Library Month: Tech Tools for Empowering Students” or browse the TeachersFirst blog for school library posts. However you choose to celebrate School Library Month, don’t forget to celebrate yourself and all that you do!