A few weeks ago, my supervisor shared a cool idea for a Makerspace on her WCPS Library Media Programs Facebook Page - it was a large piece of mosaic artwork made from stickers by the company Stick Together. These pieces of artwork are a stick-by-number mosaic. They provide the blank paper with the outlines and a lettered grid. The enclosed stickers are small, approximately 1/2" square each. I contacted the company about doing a custom photo of a cougar since our Mascot is a cougar, but the price was cost prohibitive for my budget. Instead I selected Van Gogh's Starry Night. It looks like this: The total picture is 60" x 36" - quite large! When it arrived, I hung it up with some directions: The stickers are color coded but not marked on the sticker pages, so I added them to folders to keep them organized and cut down on sticker misuse/waste: I also only put out one color at a time for students to work on. It helped keep disagreements to a minimum. We started with black because Starry Night has a LOT of black in it. Within just a few minutes, I had students wanting to sticker. They LOVED it! Over the next few weeks, many students and staff got in on the stickering action! According to the Stick Together website, it should take 5-8 hours of continuous stickering to finish a picture of this size. It took my students about 3 weeks total, and it was really fun to watch it change every day. Here's the finished piece: Doesn't it look AMAZING? I'm so proud of them! Now that we finished the first one, my students are asking when the next one will be hung up... I'm feeling like it might be time to order some sunflowers! Or maybe some hot air balloons!!
How would you use this in your classroom or Makerspace? Comment below!
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You may have heard about the Little Free Libraries popping up all across the globe, and now we have one in our library! I have one at my house, and I want to get one installed in front of our school, too... but for now, I have one inside the SPM library! This cool little bookshelf was purchased with Scholastic dollars from my leftover book fair money. It was about $250 with the shipping. It wasn't difficult to put together, either... and that's saying something for someone who has ZERO spatial reasoning skills. Here's a timelapse video of me putting it together! (I know, I know... such a dork, really...) I dragged it into the morning announcements room and talked it up... within just a few minutes a fabulous teacher brought down a whole crate full of books to donate! It didn't take long for the first period classes to get excited about it... they swarmed it! When I explained to them that they could keep the books if they loved them, they were SUPER excited! I am grateful to have yet another way to put books in student hands! Now I just have to get a community Little Free Library in front of the school... Hmmm.....
How are you encouraging literacy in your school? Post your ideas below, I'd love to see them! It's October, and things are getting spooky around here in the SPM library! First, there's a bulletin board asking you if you're DYING for a good book: Special thanks to Maddie, who let me trace her with chalk for the outline, and to the custodial staff who provided the caution tape! We also have a quote by Stephen King, the master of horror, on our LED Sign: Not to mention a fun new contest. In the month of October, students can guess the number of pumpkins in the jar to win a prize - the pumpkins AND a pair of splitter headphones! Our featured author is Mary Downing Hahn, author of many CREEPY novels! Her books NEVER stay on the shelf for long! Finally, I pulled out a series of non-fiction books and created a display for "The Unexplained" ... including books about Bigfoot, UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, Crop Circles, Aliens, Ghosts, Haunted Places, and more!
How are you engaging your patrons during the creepiest time of the year? Comment below to let me know, I would love to see your ideas! |
About the AuthorHi! Welcome to my blog! My name is Christine Hurley. This is my 17th year of teaching - I've taught Kindergarten, 4th grade, elementary media, and now I am in my 6th year of teaching middle school media! Archives
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