Posted on behalf of guest blogger Stephanie Jones

Tanya Hudson is the school librarian at Chase Street Elementary School in Athens, Georgia.  As part of Library Card Sign-Up Month, she was one of  several school librarians in the Clarke County Public School District who arranged for their students to get library cards at the public library.  Mrs. Hudson wrote about her school’s participation on her library blog, the Tree Frog Blog! During the Night at the Library event, 14 students and their families visited the recently renovated Athens Clarke County Public Library for fun events including a library tour, a raffle, and of course, new library cards.

After receiving their new cards and selecting some books, the students were thrilled to be able to scan their new library cards at the self-checkout stations. (I agree that the self-checkout stations are fun to use and so convenient!) The Night at the Library is just one of many library reading promotions at Chase Street. Every fall they have an event called the Reading Tailgate which occurs at one of the apartment complexes in town where many of the Chase Street students live. It’s a drop-in event in a big, open, grassy field. There are many activities for the students to do at different literacy stations including make-and-take centers and a used book give-away.

In the spring, they have a Poetry Picnic at the school with a potluck dinner and “tons of different poetry reading and writing stations” for students to visit. The whole school collaborates to plan and implement these events and the turnout is always great! Mrs. Hudson also takes advantage of technology to promote reading. In September the Chase Street library hosted a successful Skype visit with Kate Messner, author of Ranger in Time, one of the most popular books at their spring book fair. Prior to the visit, Mrs. Hudson prepared the second and third grade students for the visit by sharing the Messner books and brainstorming questions for the author. To see photos of these events and learn more about the happenings in the Chase Street library visit the Tree Frog Blog. They would love to hear from you too so make a comment. You can follow them on Twitter @chaselibrary

Stephanie A. Jones, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Director, Instructional Technology
Georgia Southern University

Photograph used with permission