At the beginning of the year we added a new event that served as a welcome, an orientation, and a big book event to the 6th grade class; it is the Hootenanny. This idea was a collaboration between the middle division librarian and the 6th grade language arts teachers. The impetus was that all the incoming 6th grade students read the book Hoot by Carl Hiaasen as part of their summer reading. The teachers and the library team wanted to create a fun, informative and bonding experience based on the book and its themes. The language arts teachers knew they wanted to end the event with a viewing of the movie Hoot; so we worked backwards from the movie timeframe to plan out the rest of the program. Since Berkeley Preparatory School is located in Tampa, Florida, this book is a great one to kick start the year and celebrate with a Hootenanny.

Originally, we envisioned that this would be an after school event, but then we were lucky that middle division program created a special schedule that day so that 6th and 7th grades could have special events for class bonding. So we had three hours and twenty minutes to plan the special event for the 6th grade. One of the library’s aims was to share all about the library and what it has to offer, so while the beginning plan was library-centric the whole event became more interdisciplinary when we began to draft the activities that the students would rotate throughout the library. 

Snapshot of the schedule

Logistically, we had our four members of the library team and all 6th grade teachers as support for the program. The librarians and language arts teachers facilitated the rotation stations while the other 6th grade teachers rotated with the students.  There were 105 students. Groups were quickly formed by preordered colored name tags. I sent out a color-coded schedule of the rotation so that transitions were smooth and timely. I also announced when 1 minute was left in a rotation.

Snapshot of one rotation

Hootenanny Stations

While we did not have folk music and dancing like a traditional hootenanny the students did waltz through seven stations of activities. Here is a description of the activities.

Hoot off

A “Battle of the Books” style activity but with the book Hoot. We set-up 10 buzzers so that students could buzz-in their answers to the book Hoot. This is a fun quiz show style activity, but it also served to promote our middle division Battle of the Books team. Berkeley annually hosts a Battle of the Books for Bay Area schools.

Virtual Library Overview

Our collection development and database librarian, gave students an overview of the digital face of the library in our library classroom. Students learned about our digital resources and how to navigate through the library webpage.

Community Service

We had a special station for students to hear from our Middle Division Service Coordinators about our robust Middle Division Community Service program; we thought this a perfect complement to the theme of activism in the book.

The Digital Lab

We also enlisted our Digital Lab Coordinator to run a design challenge and share about our creative and innovative digital lab which is just a couple of steps away from the library. The Digital Lab is another learning resource for our students and often research projects start in the library, but migrate to the Digital Lab for creating projects based on their research. 

Creative Corner

Students learned about the creative corner area in the library. We did a simple, artsy book spine creation based on the book My Ideal Bookshelf. Students decorated one book spine of a recent favorite read and then we compiled them all for one of our first bulletin board decorations. This highlighted the area of the library where students can be creative.Now the poster resides in my office.

Pin the Wise Owl Teachers to the Bookshelf

This activity was a spin-off a classic childhood game, but for the specific purpose for our students to learn about our non-fiction section of the library and where each subject area lives. I photoshopped our 6th grade teachers onto the bodies of owls and put magnets on the back. Students in small pairs had to find where that teacher-owl would perch in the stacks. So students got to learn all their teachers and identify where that subject area information would be in the library. After all the owls were placed they walked around and checked all the subject area teachers and the area where books related to their subject live. 

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Burrowing Book Owls

In this station we wanted our students to get familiar with our fiction collection. We created bookmarks with owls on them to serve as book recommendations. After we explained how to navigate in the fiction section we gave students a burrowing owl bookmark so that they could place it in a book as a recommendation.They browsed the shelves to look at all the fiction books we have. By the end of all the stations there were tons of burrowing owls peeking out of the books. We shared that we would leave these recommendations there for awhile so that can come back to them. We also made special librarian recommendation bookmarks that featured our own pets.

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The Grand Finale-The Film

Finally, after all the stations we had a snack break on the Aye Arboretum which is like a veranda off of the library. Our Sage Dining staff set out cookies, potato chips, and fruit. Then we headed back into the main area of the library to view the film of Hoot on our large whiteboard/projection screen. We shared with students that they could bring pillows and blankets to get comfy on the floor or sit in our available chairs. Soft seating was reserved for the teachers. We all enjoyed the movie version of the book. It was a great way to celebrate reading, the library, activism, creativity, learning and Florida while getting to know each other as a class.