A Sneak Peek at Summer 2009

Our theme has been chosen! Summer 2009's Summer Reading Program will be Driven to Read! For a NASCAR fan, this is perfect. Oh, I can picture the decorations already (including one of my dad's 6-foot tall Jeff Gordon standees...)

Christmas, December 2008

The room for Christmas 2008 is very similar to the room of 2007. The elves are back up (minus the snowmen, but including the teddy bears from the small wall last year). Santa is once again flying over the houses wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

The only difference is that the small wall now has a Gingerbread theme.

Fall 2008...Pumpkins, Scarecrows, and Things that Go 'Bump' in the Night!

The local Dollar Tree was a great friend to me for Fall 2008. The scarecrow and crows below are almost three foot high and were each only $1.00. The pumpkins we've had forever and most all falling apart and in need of new leaves, but they worked again this year.

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Then of course I found Frankenstein and Dracula at the Dollar Tree a few weeks after the scarecrow/crows. Again, these are about three foot tall. The ghost we received from a store a few years ago (it is double sided). Pumpkins are just misc. cut-outs.

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The decoration along the top is my traditional haunted house scene above the doorframe of children's. Included is a witch, ghost, clown, haunted house, fence, tree, and moon. The spider/wite/mummy/owl/frankenstein/pumpkin borders on either side of the door are new this year, again courtesy of Dollar Tree.


The decorations saved me a ton of time for the small amount of money I paid for them and they really helped fill the room...always a challenge!

A Look Back at Summer 08...

One last look at Summer...my "Catch the Reading Bug" bulletin board. (set purchased through Upstart)

August 2008 - Back to School

In Indiana, school started this year ridiculously early (August 12); ergo, my school decorations went up earlier than usual! On one wall I put the "Miss Bindergarten's Kindergarten" set that I created a couple years back. I scanned the characters from the book, enlarged them, and printed them on several sheets of A3 paper. I then assembled them and glued them together. Miss Bindergarten is about 4 foot tall! You can see a slight moire pattern from scanning, but only if you get really close. Otherwise it's just an adorable (and easy) set for this time of year.

My newest creation is my "Back to School with Classic Characters" set. This is another computer generated creation. As you can see it consists of Arthur, Froggy, and the Berenstain Bears. Last year when I first created this set I also squeezed Miss Nelson (Miss Nelson is Missing) into the scene as well. The blackboard was left over from a set we no longer have (made in the early 90's). Ellison die cut letters were placed on the blackboard with a couple of pieces of laminated chalk. To the left of Arthur are too fall trees bought from the teacher store in the area. Once storytime gets closer, we will put the names of our storytime kids on leaves and apples and put those on the tree.

August 2008 - Summer Olympics

For the month of August, I took the small wall in the Activity Room and did an Olympics celebration. I put up country flags, the Olympic rings, pictures of events (gymnastics, diving), and a map of the world. After the closing ceremony, I took the "Big Medal Winners" (countries with 20 medal wins or more) and put those numbers by the corresponding country on the map.

Centennial Gala, 2007

I uncovered some pictures this morning that I had to post even though they are almost a year old. Last year was the library's 100th anniversary as being a publicly funded library system. Children's took the activity room and made an overview of the last 100 years of Children's literature (The official theme was "From Potter to Potter." We started at Beatrix Potter and ended at Harry Potter). Each of us took one or two decades and did a display. I also did a huge time line that wrapped around the room.

1907-1919: Tale of Tom Kitten Beatrix Potter

1920's: Winnie the Pooh A.A. Milne

1930's: The Little Engine that Could Watty Piper

1940's: Rabbit Hill Robert Lawson

1950's: Charlotte's Web E.B. White

1960's: Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak

1970's: Frog and Toad Arnold Lobel

1980's: Jumanji Chris VanAllsburg

1990's-2007: Harry Potter J.K. Rowling


We also did several "special displays" to highlight certain points in Children's Literature. One focus was on the Little Golden Books, another on Reading Rainbow selections, and one on the current and future popularity of graphic novels.