Back to school!

I hope you all had a great start to the school year! I'm finally organized enough to get back into blogging more regularly. I have a bit of a brain-dump post of all the things going on in my new library.

As you may know, Mr. Lodge and I moved (again) over the summer and I am back in my old district but in a new school. Moving again meant packing, cleaning, unpacking, and organizing a new home and a new library which kept me busy, busy, busy. I'm so excited to be back in an area we love to live and back working with an incredibly inspiring group of library teachers (if you follow @libraryreeder, @mkschoen, @thnfmatters, or @librarybrods, you can imagine how thrilled I am).

I'm also feeling really lucky to have the library space I have this year. It's much bigger and better laid out than other libraries I've worked in. I'm hoping to give the kids a lot of opportunities to take ownership and make the library theirs. Here are a few shots of the space:

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This was one of my favorite summer projects. My super-handy dad cut the arrows for me, we spray painted them, and then I used paint Sharpies (a new favorite craft tool!) to write the letters.

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I've never had a good place to keep all my supplies readily available for the kids to use so I'm pretty pumped about having an official supply area:

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I have been wanting a place to display learning objectives for each grade but haven't had the space in previous libraries. I always start my lesson with the learning goal but since I'm using a presentation, the objective disappears after the first slide. Here, I finally have space!
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I've had parents get excited to see what the kids are learning this week. The library is used for a lot of meetings, both school and district-wide, so I think it will also show staff and administration what is happening in the library.

And one more favorite thing - these baskets! They're actually shower caddies from 5 Below. I cleaned out three 5 Belows in my area to get enough baskets for my fiction sections. They're the perfect size for books! I love having baskets with labels because it makes finding favorite series so much easier for the kids. I'm happy to share my labels if you send me an email!

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I had a great first month and can't wait to see what the year has in store!