Tents, Passports, and Story Time!

My vision of the media center at Lely Elementary is one where there is always something cool going on. Kids will come down to work, read, build, create, think, invent, innovate, and collaborate. I love when teachers walk through and see the kids deeply invested in what they are doing. They normally take a second look to see exactly what the kids are working on. That's cool. I love that.

One of the ways we're trying to make our media center more kid-friendly is by changing the physical environment. To that end, I made a few reading tents. The idea was that kids could come in and take a book into a tent to read. It would be a more solitary environment for reading, and the kids would like the tent-aspect. I made the tents with PVC pipe and animal print curtains that go along with our media center theme. Well, the tents are a hit. Kids LOVE them! We've got two placed in the media center now and there is one more on the way. The tents represent one step forward in our evolution. 

While we have some hits, we also have a few misses. Since I've never done this before, I am making mistakes, and trying to turn those mistakes into opportunities. It doesn't always work, but sometimes it does. At the beginning of the year, we started giving stickers for each returned book. Well, that turned out to be a whole lot of stickers. A lot! After thinking things through a bit, we decided to create Passports to Reading. We made little passport books for the kids to keep with them. When they return a book, we stamp their passport. We have different stamps so that it's not the same design or logo on every page, but the kids like it because it is like having a passport stamped upon entering another country. We like it because it is cheap :) 

In the morning before school, we have Maker Mornings where kids can come in for a half hour before school starts. During this time, they can read, do homework, or use the MakerSpace. Without a doubt, the MakerSpace is the most popular attraction. However, one morning last week, I looked over into the reading corner to find a fifth grade student with a group of younger kids. When I walked over to see what was going on, I realized that the fifth grader had picked up a puppet and was creating an impromptu story for the younger kids. I watched as he wove a tale about the monkey puppet. The younger kids ate it up. I was reminded that kids can do some really amazing things and I love that this media center offers them an environment where they feel that they can stretch themselves and try new things. That is exactly the environment we are trying to create here!