Ok moms, this is my first time doing/planning/attending the school's bookfiar. My son is in an early learners school where there are only prek and k students and 90% of them have some form of a special need. So, my question to you is from the book fairs you have attended what has been succesful, what is something you though was a waste of efforts ect. I would like this to be successful and I would like to have a great time (ha ha) and hopefully get some reading done. So, any of you who has run or attended a successful event that has any advice I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance moms.
We've had Scholastic Book Fairs for years and they are hugely successful. They make the planning really easy, too!
Are you using Scholastic? They bring in these carts/bookshelves that are locked and loaded so to speak.
If the teachers are interested in some books for the classroom, have them create wish lists that are posted or sent home, and then a cart with a box for each teacher where parents can place purchased books. Same for if you have a library.
Raffle tickets
Book(s)- pick a good book that most kids are interested in like Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Sell tickets for $1.
Poster(s) - sell tickets for $1.
DS game - sell tickets for $1
Bags for purchased items.
At least 2 registers. 1 operater, 1 helper for each register.
2-3 parents to help reorganize. Kids like to pick up books, take them to their parent and then when the parent says no, they put it down where they are standing.
Other fun items are mind teasers/puzzles.
I agree that scholastic does great book fairs. Be sure to accept credit cards.. Scholastic will provide the device needed. They will also provide Banners and signs..
We USED to have a wonderful children's Book Store that did book fairs, but unfortunately they went out of business a long time ago.
We used to host the book sale for an entire week so kids and parents could come in at their convenience. We also learned at the middle school to hold it at least one night so parents that worked could also come in after work.
We had forms that were wish lists. The children would look around and if they saw a book/books they were interested in, we had the volunteers or the child, write down the title and the price.. Then the child could take it home and discuss it with the parents. The parents could then send the money with the wish list in a sealed envelope with the child's name and the teachers name. We would then complete the transaction and send the book home with the child.
At the Fall book sale it is held during the Back to school nights. This way the parents could also come in a "shop" for books.
At the elementary school we invited local writers or brought in a writer to read their book and talk with the children about writing books. We had a representative for John R. Erickson who writes "Hank the Cow dog" come and do a performance.. he was great.
Find some fun moms and dads to volunteer. They can make a big difference.
Check with your local independent bookstore. Sometimes they'll put on bookfairs and they are INCREDIBLE
If you have a scholastic warehouse near you (check their website) you can attend a book fair planning event. They give lots of great ideas on how to be successful. Other than that, you have gotten great feedback so far. Have fun!
I have helped with the Scholastic book fair at my son's elementary school library. Just like Laurie A. describes.
The librarian's goal was to have kids buy books to read, and she wouldn't put out as much of the "toy" items that could get lost. The kids would come in one class at a time with their money in ziplock bags labelled with their name. Volunteers with calculators helped them figure out if they had enough money. After they chose a book, if they had money left over they could purchase a pencil, bookmark, or eraser next to the cash register. The books were divided into themed tables. One for the parents(like cookbooks), a spanish table, a bargain table, picture books, easy readers, popular characters like disney, etc.. I think scholastic supplied bright plastic tablecloths and cardboard display stands. Empty boxes were tucked out of the way under the tables.
Everything else in the library was pushed out of the way. No access to the regular library books or checkouts for the week to avoid confusion. Volunteers helped set up at the beginning and clean up at the end, giving them time to get familiar with where everything was located and make their own purchases.
Do you already have a vendor picked out for your fair? Scholastic is a very popular one. However, there is also Anderson Book Fairs, which is run through Anderson's Book Store. There are more options to customize your fair with them, and get many more publishers' books. http://andersons.indiebound.com/
Kids love contests, so if you can come up with an idea to have one student in each class win a free book, etc. it may generate some excitement. We put a stack of books in a ribbon and asked the kids to guess the total number of pages. Whoever was closest won a free book. At this age, you will likely get some very cute answers, but they may not get the counting concept, so maybe there is another idea. Also, if you are planning to have the kids make wish lists, have lots and lots of helpers since most won't be writing much.
I love the book fair!
I'd keep the books age appropriate, display them face forward (because let's face it, kids still judge books by the cover, LOL!) put some 'older' books out in case those kids have older siblings... don't forget, the holidays are coming up and they may be buying for friends and family as well... and don't forget that mom and dad love reading too! (hopefully, anyway)
Just remember your target audience, and let's be honest here, kids really just want some cool pencils, posters, and erasers... all that 'stuff' that is usually last in the checkout line that I never buy my kids, LOL!!
Have fun and good luck!
