In-Room Kids Library Tour When You Don't Have Much Time or Space

I bring a lot of things that worked as an educator to my job. I actually bring it everywhere, because well, once you learn how people receive and retain information, it's easy to see it being employed (effectively and ineffectively) all around. It's pretty impossible to un-see it. So when I was charged with making a tour for elementary kids completely from scratch, I immediately started thinking about it like I would any lesson plan or even professional development. What do I want them to take away? What preconceived notions might they have that would keep them from learning meaningfully?

To jumpstart my thinking about these things, I turned to fellow FSU grad Tina, a school librarian in Orlando, FL (or, for those of you who have never lived in the South, "Disney World."). She brought up some really awesome points about how kids don't really know how to choose a book. Talking to her also got me thinking about why the kids would want to go to the public library, when I'm sure they might think, "I have a school library. I don't need another smelly old library." Basically, what's cool about the library? If you, the librarian, don't know what makes the kids' library awesome, it's hard to fake it and make it fun. I went about creating a "tour" that would work on debunking this preconceived notion. What follows is the write up I did for my coworkers:

Story Action Pod: A Completed Book of Kid Answers!

As you know I've pretty much downplayed the awesomeness of my Story Action Pod since its inception (no, no I never did).

White piece of paper taped to a binder.
Text reads, "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie...
and other awesome ideas
by the kids at Family Storytime and the Story Action Pod
Summer 2011

But lo, in the seventh week of the Summer Reading Program, it came to pass that kids' versions of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" were combined and bound. And it was good.