I visited my local public library a couple of days ago and found some very creative displays for Valentine's Day. The first one I noticed was in the children's section - a Blind Date with a Book display. I wanted to share it with you today. Blind Date with a Book is all the rage these days, and for good reason. If you've not heard of this yet, it's quite simple. You just choose some good books (preferably ones that aren't checked out often), take some wrapping paper (or even bulletin board paper), cover the books with the paper, and put them on display. I love the idea of wrapping up an awesome book that a student may not otherwise consider - talk about not judging a book by its cover!
This display is so simple, yet it looked amazing. The children's librarian wrote the genre of the book on the red heart, which I thought was a good idea because it gives you a general idea of what the book is about. What about the barcode, you ask? I loved the public library's solution to this. They just put the barcode side on the back and cut a rectangle out of the paper. Brilliant!
You can see the sign's text in the files below!
Have you tried this in your library?
I wanted to throw this out there in case you wanted to put a quick display together for your students. You could even do it for the entire month of February - I'm sure they wouldn't mind!
To help you out, I've created a couple of totally free files for you to print out for your display, using the text from the public library sign! The first sign says "this Valentine's Day" and the second one says "this month", so you have options. Check it out!
Valentine's Day wording - PDF
Same sign, uses "this month" instead of Valentine's Day - PDF
Love these ideas?
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Happy Valentine's Day from Elementary Librarian!
This will be my second year doing this for 5th grade. I start wrapping in January and put the books on display so they can walk around and look at the subject headings I write on the cover for clues. I have them fill out a "Rate your date" slip telling me what they liked/didn't like about the book. Then I have random drawing for small prizes for those who turned in the slips by the deadline.
I liked the idea of "Blind Date with a Book" but I love this SO much more - I'd rather focus on the kids finding new types of books than encouraging them to be thinking about dates. Amazing, thank you!