Celebrate - Books

It's that time - Book Fair in an elementary school. After twenty years of doing book fairs, it's not that much fun anymore, EXCEPT the kids absolutely love it. I'm always taken in by their excitement and passion for reading. Here is the "Clifford" truck as the delivery guy called it in front of my school.
The book fair is delivered in rolling cases filled  with books plus additional boxes of books to put on display. After several grueling hours with the help of volunteers, the library media center becomes a book store.

Perhaps, my favorite activity at a book fair is giving away books on our morning announcements. I have teachers send me the names of students who are really working hard to improve in their academic work and/or just need a positive something to happen. These students get to select a free paperback book at the book fair. The excitement and wonder on their faces makes the week-long hardwork worth it.

Quilting At Mulberry

Well, I made it. I've been back at school/work for a week. It is wonderful to be back with our students and actually teaching. It's a bit of a stretch for me to teach several groups in a row, but I made it. Yesterday, one of our teachers of the gifted and talented students asked me to speak to her second graders on quilting. It was a blast! These seven year old boys and girls were "psyched about quilt blocks". They had chosen blocks from the endpages in The Quiltmaker's Gift. They made blocks with paper on graph paper and are doing research on their blocks. I did my class on comparing Quilting in the Past to Quilting today. I brought digital pictures to show them of old treadle machines, quilts, our Stitch-ins today, my computerized sewing machine and my sewing room. I brought my Featherweight so they could see a real sewing machine.  I brought a stack of quilts for them to look at and touch. They loved finding blocks they knew in the real quilts. I felt it was important for them to know that quilters read patterns to make quilts. It's important for us to follow directions. I brought a work in progress with the pattern so they could see I had directions for the blocks.  I dug through some of my scraps and strings. I left a bag of fabric scraps and batting for the students to "play with." Even if they just fondle the fabric and enjoy the colors it will be fun.

I always like to have a picture on a blog post. Of course, I didn't think to take a picture yesterday. Here is a picture of the quilt that I made for our school Media Center. The pattern is called Mulberry Bush which is fitting since our school is Mulberry Elementary.

I'm off to Athens, Georgia tomorrow for our State Media/Library Conference. It will be two wonderful days spent with many media specialists from my County and around the state of Georgia. Lots of books and good friends! Even a couple of quilting librarian friends like Brenda at Quilting Cowgirl and Kristie, M.S.Doolittle Quilter. I'll check back later in the weekend.