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Tackling lesson plans for upper elementary students has been an ongoing challenge in my role as a librarian. The task of keeping them engaged has gotten increasingly difficult. The struggle becomes even more real after the holiday break as the 5th graders return feeling more like middle school students than elementary students. So, I’ve put together a list of ideas and activities for engaging upper elementary students to spice things up and keep the excitement alive for learning in the library. Let’s dive into some ideas that can help you transform your upper elementary students from “too cool for school” to “bring on the books!” This post is collaborative in a sense. You see, over in the Staying Cool in the Library private Facebook group were discussing this very topic. If you are not already a member, come join us! Through this discussion, I quickly realized that this issue
The Dewey Decimal System – vital to keeping the library organized. However, it is not the most interesting topic to teach. Over the years I have tried countless ways of teaching my students how nonfiction books are organized in the library without putting them to sleep! Some of my ideas have been successful and others I would rather forget about. In my store, I have quite a few Dewey Decimal products from PowerPoint introductions, bingo games, worksheets, and my best-selling task card sets. But today I want to share with you some free ideas (minus a few supplies). They are activities that are sure to spice up your lessons on Dewey. I want to be totally honest and let you know that some of these are not my original ideas but ones I have picked up from Pinterest and social media at one time or another.  1. Word clouds Word