Running a library club
In recent years, we’ve all become aware that promoting a love of reading is one of the most important things we can do to ensure our children’s future success. Schools across the country are working hard to ensure that teachers have knowledge of children’s books, that children hear books being read aloud to them and that children have time in school to read on their own for pleasure.
“Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s future success.”
If we’re to promote reading for pleasure, children also need ready access to books, which is why vibrant, enticing school libraries are so important. However, a designated library space is only the beginning. For children to be able to find the books they want, they need to know how their library works, what’s stored in it many sections and to feel at home in their library space. Hosting a library club is a fun way to help children build this knowledge and so ultimately help them to read for pleasure.
Having run my own library club, these are my top ideas to help you get your library club up and running:
1. Location, Location, Location
Host your library club in the library! This first top tip may have sparked a few giggles because it is so obvious, but many pupils do not get to spend much quality time in their school libraries due to the constraints of a busy day in a primary school! They may visit once a week to choose a new library book and then return quite quickly to their lesson. Holding library club in the library will enable them to spend time in the area, sitting on a bean bag and reading a book. It will give them time to browse the shelves of stock that they wouldn’t normally get to look at. Location is everything!
2. How does the library work?
Children are often unsure of the specifics of how a library is organised. In libraries out of school, they know to head to the children’s section to find books they want to read but how can they navigate around a school library? Spend some time introducing the different sections and how they are organised – picture books, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, graphic novels, dual-language books and so on. Teach children the alphabetical ordering system for fiction and the Dewey decimal system for non-fiction. There are so many vital learning opportunities in the library that will prepare our pupils for lives outside of their school so we should build those foundations now.
3. Go scavenging!
This has been one of the most popular activities I have done! All children love a good scavenger hunt so let them explore the library looking for specific things; a non-fiction book about a different country, a book by an author whose surname begins with ‘M’, a book title that is only one word etc. This can be differentiated for all ages and abilities. With a prize for the winning scavenger, adds a competitive element to it which all children love!
4. Fantastic Fiction
Use library club to share books and plan some creative activities around the text. For example, share ‘The Disgusting Sandwich’ by Gareth Edwards and ask the children to design their own disgusting sandwich! Make sure you have a strong stomach when getting the children to share their creations! For ‘The Fish who could Wish’ by John Bush, ask the children to draw what they would wish for if they had their own wishing powers. Read ‘The Secret Garden’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett and plant wild flowers in the school grounds or create a mini biome for their own secret garden. The possibilities are endless!
5. Do you know…?
What are your pupil’s interests? Do they ever get to be experts in their own interests with topics they are studying in the classroom? Use library club to get them to explore their interests and become experts in the field! Ask your pupils what they find interesting – space, the Vikings, animals etc. Give them a large sheet of paper, different coloured markers and tell them to create a mind map of their chosen topic using the non-fiction books on the shelves. They will rush for those books using their library organisation knowledge from Top Tip 2! Once the children have finished their mind maps, they can present their information to the group. Think of all those reading skills they have just used for this activity!
6. Raving Recommendations
Library club may only have enough space for 10-15 members from a year group/key stage so how can this be extended to children who are not in the club? Get the library club members to share their book recommendations. This can be done in a number of ways. The children could make book recommendation bookmarks and leave them in the books they like for others to access during their library session. If your school has a newspaper, ask the editor if library club can publish their book reviews in the newspaper. If you are lucky enough to have a radio club, broadcast book reviews on the radio station for all children to hear. You could also create a book blog for recommendations and share it via your school’s social media and website. There are so many ways that the children can get their recommendations out there.
7. And relax!
Finally… just let them read. Library club doesn’t always have to be a fast paced and dynamic session where children are completing activities for the whole hour. Choose a session and let the children read and look at the books they want to. Get out the bean bags, let them lie on the floor, let them read on their own/ with a partner/ with a cuddly toy. After all, just providing time for children to enjoy books and reading is what we are here for. And don’t forget about yourself. Choose a book and read alongside your library club members. Teachers are very important role models when it comes to reading for pleasure and your children should see adults in school enjoying books as much as we want them to.