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For many years I taught in the classroom. After a few of those years, I was given the opportunity to become a school media specialist because, "no one else would take the job". I remember thinking to myself, those librarians have it easy… a quiet room, free lunch duty, no classroom paperwork, so I took the job and man was I mistaken! Seven classes a day, grades Pre-K-6 weekly lesson plans, a newscast every morning, ordering and purchase orders, and of course shelving and shelving and more shelving.
One of the greatest challenges I had in my first year as a media specialist was how to get kids to enjoy the library. I was constantly hearing "Do we have to go to the library, it's so boring", "I wish I were in P.E.".
I thought back to my classroom days and all the fun we had learning things in unique ways (I must admit here- I am a game addict!). Mainly, we played games to learn everything.
I looked at the skills I was accountable for teaching in the library and spent many, many hours brainstorming ideas, designing game boards, making tokens and in the end created a set of library skill games. Those games were such a hit that kids would ask to play them every time they came to the library. I didn't hear things like "boring" and "what time is it"- I heard and saw excitement for being in a place they never wanted to be in before.
So in 2001, LIBRARYGAMES.COM was created to give librarians the opportunity to do the same in their libraries. I truly believe there is nothing better than seeing children having so much fun playing that they don't realize they are learning at the same time!
We are proud to announce that all of our games and videos can now be ordered through Upstart/Highsmith!
Many Happy Book Returns,
Kathleen |
