April Is School Library Month...Let's Celebrate All Month Long, Friends!

It's April and that means it is time to celebrate School Library Month!

This is such an important event as we can give special recognition to all of the amazing school libraries and wonderful teacher librarians, along with their programs, that have an impact on each and every one of the students, teachers and families throughout communities everywhere.

In fact, to kick off the celebrations, AASL announced this years Social Media Superstars! You can read all about the eight new superstars who are making a huge difference for school libraries everywhere. 

As the AASL School Library Month site shared,

School Library Month is the American Association of School Librarians' celebration of school librarians and their programs. Every April school librarians are encouraged to host activities to help their school and local community celebrate the essential role that strong school library programs play in transforming learning. More about the history of School Library Month.

The 2019 theme is Everyone Belongs @ Your School Library and the 2019 spokesperson is Dav Pilkey.  I love this new video from Dav, as he shares the importance of school libraries.  

He also shares, 

Growing up with learning challenges in school after being diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, I’ve been fortunate to have had the encouragement and support of my parents who helped me to associate reading with fun. I have fond memories of going to the library with my mom who had a radical idea—she let me pick whatever book I wanted to read. I read lots of books and magazines that made me laugh out loud, which led me to discover many other books in different genres. Reading without judgment was a turning point in my life and that is what made me a lifelong reader. Over the years I’ve had the privilege to have met many committed librarians whose passion and dedication to literacy is life changing. I’m honored to be this year’s AASL ambassador for school libraries and an advocate for everything they do to make the world a better place.

You will find Dav's site here.

It is packed full of so much fun including....

...these great activity sheets that our students will love as we celebrate reading and libraries this month. 

The AASL School Library Month Committee, has brought together the School Library Month 2019 Activity Guide with lots of ideas as we think about how our Shared Foundations tie into this celebration and all year long too.

These are such great ideas for this month, and for all year long in our libraries and communities too. I printed them off and added them to my folder for brainstorming and collaboration. I will be using these for sure! 

You will find this Activity Guide,

along with other Website Graphics,

Printable Posters, and...

...different Social Media Banners, which makes it very easy to add a special touch to your Twitter and Facebook. 

I updated the banner on the Van Meter Library Voice Facebook and just love how this shows how we support how everyone belongs at our library, this month and throughout the entire year. 

At the bottom of the page, you will find several different Proclamation Templates.  These can make such an impact community and state wide, as we work with our administrators, school boards, towns and even at the state level, to proclaim the month of April as School Library Month. 

I plan to share this one with my administrators and school board as we celebrate and proclaim April as School Library Month in Van Meter. 

And don't miss the four webinars AASL will be hosting throughout the month of April.  You can sign up for them here. 

I have brought together all of these resources and a few more in this School Library Month Collection by Destiny that you will find here.  Please feel free to share it and let me know if you'd like to collaborate and add to it as well. I would love to know what else we could add for this special month.

We are going to be sharing all of the special activities and celebrations from our library and community using the hashtag #AASLSLM on Twitter and...

...Instragram.  You can follow our library at #vmlibraryvoice on both.  I hope that all of you do too.

Happy School Library Month to all of my friends and colleagues who make our libraries and communities so full of meaningful experiences, wonderful resources, and love....and for making our school libraries the heart of all schools and a place that everyone is welcome.  

Together, we make a difference that our kids will remember forever.