March 2nd marks the annual celebration of Read Across America Day, a time dedicated to encouraging a love of reading in students across the country. Traditionally, this day was closely associated with Dr. Seuss books and themed activities. However, in recent years, there’s been a meaningful shift in focus toward promoting multicultural and diverse children’s literature. This change is both timely and necessary. It opens the door to sharing a wider range of stories that reflect the rich backgrounds, experiences, and voices of students in our classrooms. As educators and parents, we now have a powerful opportunity to highlight books that promote acceptance, kindness, inclusion, and cultural awareness, values that are essential for nurturing compassionate and informed readers. In this post, I’m sharing a variety of meaningful activities and ideas that align with the updated focus of celebrating diverse voices in literature. These resources are ideal for Read Across
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





