GIFSL* 48: Valentine's Day 2010

I know, I'm sorry, too late for you, but hey, bookmark this or bung it in your Delicious list or save it in your reader, and you can use it next year.  And the year after...

Valentine's Day is a convenient starting 'theme' for the school year - being nice to others, in the most general sense, combined with 'love reading'.

We had bookmarks, featuring the prose I wrote last year (read it here).  Cardboard colour choices? Pink and red.  A bookmark for every borrower, library PR, useful for the borrower and summat for nuffink that the kids appreciate.

We unpacked last year's Valentine banners (featuring a quirky fabric marrying hearts and skulls, just the thing to appeal to teenage taste).  Read all about how to make them here.

Note the bookcase selection: pinks and reds and a few purples, and while the pinks give it a girly cast (there are not a lot of uber-boy books with pink spines) the reds mix it up so there's something for every browser/reader/borrower.  Books picked on a colour theme can be rather handy at helping the kids find books they might not have found before, too.  Apart from the obvious purty factor.

Hey, did you notice something else on which I have not yet commented?  Up in the air...

Ah, God bless Ikea's little cotton socks for having a heart theme for Christmas 2009.  These wooden hearts, sold two to a pack, were severely reduced after Christmas and I snaffled them up.  Perfect for Valentine's Day; and their scale good for this purpose, as they don't get lost.  It's awfully worthwhile checking our holiday decorations after the event and seeing if there are bargains to be had that can be deployed in your school library.

If you wanted to do something similar, you could try heavyweight cardboard, painted, or even balsa wood cut to shape and painted.  Neither one immensely difficult nor immensely expensive.

I'm also very grateful that, while we have a high ceiling through most of the library, we do have lowish ones in the small foyer area, which allows us to do things such as hanging these hearts.

What did the kids think?  Cool, miss.

It was a nice mood and way to start what's proving to be a hectic, busy, cheerful year.

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = Good ideas for school libraries