The One and Only Ivan Bulletin Board

My second graders are currently reading The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate with their classroom teacher and I wanted to amp up excitement about the book.

Initially, I had intended to simply put up the cover of the book and add some interesting facts about the real Ivan. Wait, Ivan was real? He sure was. Check out the Katherine Applegate's webite, she has a great deal of information about the real Ivan. She also has a new book coming out in October 2014 - Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla.

In true librarian form, the more research I did, the more excited I got about the One and Only Ivan bulletin board. I ended up with a slew of facts about not only the real Ivan, but about the gorilla population, as a whole. I also added an (almost) life-size cut out of a gorilla. The paper gorilla ended up being 5'4" with an arm span of 8 feet.

I used an overhead projector to trace the gorilla and then free-hand cut his face out of a piece of gray construction paper. 

The board has been up for two days now and people have constantly been coming in to share their excitement! I love watching the kiddos stand there and reading all the interesting facts, it has been far more engaging than I ever anticipated. The facts include:

• The average male gorilla stands between 5 and 7 feet.
• The arm span of an average male gorilla is almost 9 feet!
• The average male gorilla eats over 40 pounds of food per day, the average American person eats 5-6 pounds of food per day.
• Gorillas are herbivores - they eat leaves, shoots, roots, vines and fruits.
• The lifespan of an average male gorilla is 35 years. Ivan lived to be 50 years old.
• There are 4 subspecies of gorillas: Eastern lowland, Mountain, Western lowland, Cross River.
• Gorillas are an endangered species, there are less than 300 Cross River gorillas left in the world.
• The One and Only Ivan is fictional, but was inspired by a true story.
• Ivan was a male Western lowland gorilla.
• Ivan was captured in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Ivan and (what is believed to be) his sister were captured as infants and brought to the United States. Ivan's sister died shortly after arriving.
• Ivan was raised in a home until he became too big and unmanageable. He was moved to the B&I Circus Store in Tacoma, Washington.
• Ivan's cage in Tacoma was only 40 feet by 40 feet!
• Ivan spent 27 years alone in his cage without seeing another of his kind.
• When the mall where Ivan lived went bankrupt (they didn't have any money), he was moved to the Zoo Atlanta. Before his move to Atlanta, Georgia, Ivan spent a short time at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.

I did include a citation sheet on my bulletin board so I could model that behavior for students. I found my information on the following sites:

Defenders of Wildlife - Basic Facts About Gorillas

The One and Only Ivan - The Real Ivan

Zoo Atlanta - Celebrating Ivan

What ARE School Librarians?

Original graphic by @jenniferlagarde.

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Library Menagerie

The library menagerie is constantly growing...

They brighten our spirits, make wonderful reading buddies, create perfect opportunities to connect with hesitant little ones, and bring already fun stories to life.

I have known about Jellycat for a few years now and my wish list of Jellycat critters to be added to the menagerie is constantly growing. I have been hinting to my husband about these creatures, in particular, for some time now...

 Tweedledee Sheep

 Road to Rio Llama

Olive Owl

 Orlando Owl

Tweedledee Hedgehog

Oh, the possibilities of storytime fun...

If you don't have a fluffy zoo in your library yet, I would highly suggest it. It opens opportunities and connections I would never have dreamt possible.

The Awesomeness of Powell's Books' Shirts

I love Powell's Books. Seriously. If I lived in Portland, I would be in HUGE trouble.

If you haven't been there and you're a major bibliophile like me, it's a must on your bucket list. Plan to literally get lost among books. It's a beautiful thing.

Another beautiful thing? They sell the best book-themed apparel. It's not a huge selection, but what they have rocks. And they generally print on super high quality fabric that is gloriously soft. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

My husband has literally worn out his Powell's shirt he loves it so much.

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When my latest Powell's shirt arrived, I needed to celebrate it's cuteness by dressing like a fire-breathing dragon for our lower school assembly. Now, a normal person would have a topic in mind for assembly announcements and then plan a costume based on that topic. Nope, not me. I wanted to dress like a dragon. Soooo... I pulled all of my favorite dragon-themed books and told the kiddos how awesome they all were. They were chomping at the bit to check the books out and I got to wear my dragon outfit. Win, win. Thanks, Powell's Books! Want your own shirt? Find them here.

You, too, can pull off this adorable outfit by putting together the following:

• Shirt from Powell's Books
• Felt hat from Joann Fabrics (I bought this in-store during late summer 2014), I'm going to attempt to make these, so check back for a tutorial
• Fire-breathing apparatus: Cut a hole in the bottom of a paper cup, tape red crepe or tissue paper strips to the lip of the cup. Blow through the hole to get the flames to dance... Much to the astonishment of all.

A Librarian Through and Through

I am a librarian through and through. I love what I do and I do what I love. I live and breathe my passion. I wonder how many other occupations out there infiltrate nearly all areas of those professionals' lives? Being a librarian is who I am, what I do, and how I identify. This means, that when I give gifts, they are often librarian-themed and I am "giving part of myself." 

I recently made my mother-in-law's banana bread (it is off-the-hook delicious). Now, the librarian in me needed to add a little literary flair... When I first got to my current school and was cleaning out the office, I found boxes upon boxes of old library checkout cards. Instead of letting them sit there and collect another decade of dust or (gasp) recycle them, I use them. A lot.

I simply cut the checkout cards down to size, wrote a quick message, used a heart hole punch and Viola!

Here they are as the tags on some wedding gifts. You'll also notice that I don't often use "real" wrapping paper. The closest I get is brown butcher paper, I love the shabby chic look. Generally, though, I use fabric to wrap the gift and then use scraps of a coordinating fabric to tie it all together.

Everything is just cuter when it's on a library checkout card. Seriously.

Is that not the most adorable wedding gift package?

I also use old card catalog cards...

Wondering what was inside those beautiful packages? The couple were from two different countries so I made a little framed art to pay homage to their homes.

Writing this makes me wonder what other librarians do in their lives that include glimpses of their professional lives? What other professions infiltrate everything you do?

How to Add Custom Favicon on Blogger Blogspot

You know you've "cyber made it" when a little caricature of you appears in the URL box of your blog. That's a sure sign of success. Check it out:

I will say, unapologetically, I am adorable in a URL box. Seriously.

How can you appear as a tiny, cute version of yourself in a URL box you ask, let me show you...

I started by searching, "Icon in url bar blogger" because I had no idea that what I was looking for had a name (of course it did) and that it was an easy fix. A "Favicon" or "Favorites Icon" is the little graphic located to the left of the URL in the browser box.

Step One: In your Blogger dashboard, click Layout:

Step Two: Click Edit on the Favicon gadget. If, at some point, you removed this gadget from your site, you'll need to go back in and Add a Gadget:

Step Three: A window will open, select Choose File and locate the image you'd like to use from your computer. Click Save and your Favicon should replace the Blogger logo. My logo did not appear immediately and I had to clear the cookies on my browser before it worked.

 One thing to keep in mind... Blogger will not accept images that are not perfectly square. I am not a graphic designer, so I simply adjusted the size of my image in Preview:

After clicking on Adjust Size, I unlocked the image (click on the padlock), and changed the dimensions. Play with it, I can take a bit of finessing to look right:

I am far from well-versed in all things techy, so I am constantly Googling (which is officially a word now. At least, according to spell check. If our ancestors could see us now, Googling fools) anything and everything about my blog. Here are a few sites that helped me in this process:

"How to Add or Change Favicon on Blogger Blogspot" by Helplogger
"Tutorial: How to Create a Custom Favicon for Your Blog" by Design Your Own Lovely Blog
"Custom Favicons" by Typepad Knowledge Base

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Are you interested in having a too-cute-for-words caricature of you? Check out my post on getting Getting Melonheadz-ed and you, too can have a mini cartoon you.

Updated! Shark Week Storytime

A few weeks back I planned to do an ocean-themed storytime to go with my Reader's Reef genre bulletin board. What started as ocean-themed quickly turned into something attuned to Shark Week in the library. There are just too many adorable shark projects and ideas on Pinterest. I couldn't help myself!

My book selections were good, but I will definitely make some changes for next time around. I absolutely love Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen, it is a new favorite! The kids loved, loved, loved it!

I think I'm a Shark by Bob Shea is an adorable book for students to read and check out, but it wasn't great for reading aloud. I think next year I'll display it, but not use it in the storytime.

Last came Wave by Suzy Lee. This. Book. Is. Wonderful. I actually really enjoy using wordless books for storytime, the kids always impress me with their level of engagement and focus. The pictures are amazing and the "story" is so sweet. Love this one!

Between books we sang "Five Little Fishies" and used the shark and fish felts (my husband's favorite). All credit for this goes to Jane from Piper Loves the Library! I fell in love with her shark so much, that I had to make one of my own. I love his big-toothed smile and semi-grimacing eyebrow furrow. Like Jane, I mounted him on black felt so that his tail and fins wouldn't be so fragile.

"Five Little Fishies"

(Sung to the tune of Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree)

Five little fishes, swimming in the sea.

Teasing Mr. Shark, "You can't catch me."

Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be ... and ... Sssnnnnnap!

Four little fishes, swimming in the sea.

Teasing Mr. Shark, "You can't catch me."

Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be ... and ... Sssnnnnnap!

Three little fishes, swimming in the sea.

Teasing Mr. Shark, "You can't catch me."

Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be ... and ... Sssnnnnnap!

Two little fishes, swimming in the sea.

Teasing Mr. Shark, "You can't catch me."

Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be ... and ... Sssnnnnnap!

One little fishie, swimming in the sea.

Teasing Mr. Shark, "You can't catch me."

Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be ... and ... Sssnnnnnap!

Burp ... I'm full.

Thank you, Jane, this was a wonderful success!!!

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Update: Thanks to Shark Week on Discovery Channel, there are a gazillion shark-themed ideas on Pinterest. These are just a few I tried (and loved!):

 Shark Fin Hats, aren't they fun! Pinned by Raquel Hernandez, I was unable to locate the original source. I simply cut strips of blue construction paper, stapled them together and added a fin (with some CHOMP marks). So easy and so fun!

The idea for this darling clothespin shark comes from Estefi Machado. The blog is in Portuguese and while I was able to translate the post through Google, it was still a challenge to understand. So, I took my best guess.

 I did a sketch on white card stock, outlined it with black marker and added some color.

 The fishy is attached with a small section of wooden toothpick, glued to the back of the clothespin.

 Cute and fun!

 Another fast and fun shark craft? The shark clothespin for developing fine motor skills, from Make, Do and Friend. Just paint, glue and play!

 I painted my sharky with blue acrylic paint, added a construction paper fin, and squiggly eyes.

The white paint was tough... I had to clamp the clothespin open in order for it to dry and even then, the teeth stuck together. Still cute.

Up next... I'm debating creating a storytime entirely dedicated to peas. Hmmm, what do you think? You might be asking yourself, "Why peas?" Well, they're healthy, they're green (I'm a fan of doing color-themed storytimes) and peas in a pod are absolutely adorable. Think of the craft possibilities! Pinterest, here I come!