A NEW Literacy and Art Subscription Box Program Comes To Our Library! Check Out The B.A.M. (Books, Arts, Making) Boxes Here, Friends.

 

We have kicked off a new literacy and art subscription box program at Van Meter and we couldn't be more excited! 

The subscription boxes are called the B.A.M. Boxes...Books, Art and Making and are managed by the Van Meter Library Creation Station, a group of students, a parent volunteer and me. 

The inspiration for this project came from our Future Ready Librarian® webinar in February, The Mindful Librarian, 

with the teacher librarians, Kira Brennan, Jenny Gray, Dawn Murray and Katie Pendleton, at Parkway Schools in Missouri. You can watch it here in this post. 

One of my favorite takeaways from the webinar were the Lit Loot...Library Subscription Boxes they shared. 

This program pairs up literature and fun loot around the theme of the book in each subscription box. 

They have students sign up to take the boxes home as they read and enjoy the loot inside.  It is such a special program and one that definitely inspired me as I thought about... 

...how we could support literacy and art in creative, meaningful and fun ways with the new B.A.M. Box program. 

I started by gathering art themed books I had in my collection and looking for new ones that would be a great fit.  

Two of our awesome students ,who are part of the Van Meter Library Creation Station, and...

....my friend and parent, Natasha, helped me organize the books and...

...art and craft supplies to...

...create...

....over 50 B.A.M. Boxes.  

To create the boxes, we used a 12 x 9 x 3 white shipping box that I ordered from Amazon. 

I then created this image in Canva. It is the Presentation 16:9 style. 

I printed them on our color printer using 8.5 x 11 full sheet address sticker labels.  

We cut off the excess white boarder around the sticker before we put them onto the top of each box. 

Natasha then wrote on the front edge of the box the title and grade level of each B.A.M. Box. 

Since all of the boxes where organized with a title and supply list for each in a Google Doc, we printed them off on the sticker paper, cut them apart and...

...put them on the inside front of the lid. 

On the inside of each box, 

we made another sticker with the details for the B.A.M. Box.  

We also used the ends of each box to include a few more things including...

....a label that says Celebrate What You Make! 

On the label it tells families how to take a picture and share....

....tagging our library Twitter or Instagram at @vmlibraryvoice.

The other side contains a label that says SCAN FOR ART and it takes them...

....to Our Art Choice Board at....

...bit.ly/vanmeterart. They love using this choice board at school and it will give them inspiration and places to find ideas and resources while at home too. 

When all of the B.A.M. Boxes were finished, I stacked them up on our book cart....

...and went around to each of our TK-5th grade classrooms to deliver two boxes to each.  Teachers can choose how they want to distribute the boxes and each class came up with a plan for how long they would keep the box at home. 

I wrote a letter to send home with families. They put one in the B.A.M. Box each time it went home too.

Our students were so excited to...

....take the B.A.M. Boxes home with them and we...

...can't wait to see what they will create.

On Friday, we got our first picture from a family creating with the B.A.M. Box.  The smile says it all! They will surely be a wonderful addition to our library and school community.