10 National Literacy and Numeracy Week ideas for school libraries

Are you looking for some fun, creative activities or lessons for your school library for National Literacy and Numeracy Week?

Have a look at our list of 10 activities that your school library can offer to help promote literacy and digital literacy.

1. Get students familiar with their digital compass

Digital Compass is an award winning interactive “choose your path” animated game designed for Years 6-8 but suitable for older students too. It is a fun way to get older students role-playing scenarios where the online choices they make can have good or not-so-good outcomes.

The makers of the game suggest using Digital Compass to introduce students to the concepts of Digital Citizenship and then following up with 1 of their K-12 Digital Literacy & Citizenship 45-minute lessons.

2. Help students work out what’s fishy online

Hector the dolphin learns some valuable lessons about safe online behaviour and digital citizenship in Hectors World. Suitable for early primary school students, the animated episodes and associated support materials, lesson plans and classroom activities help to promote the skills and values young people need to grow into confident, knowledgeable and caring members of the online community.

3. How do you get students interested in exploring the library? You “Poke-em-on”

I’m sure even the most remote school is trying to work out how to harness and control the Pokemon Go craze!

There’s been some very clever librarians who have managed to make the most of it and some could be tied in to your school’s National Literacy and Numeracy week activities.

A public library in Ontario devised an offline Pokemon Go scavenger hunt in the library that eliminated the need for kids to use the app. It’s an easy way to get students wandering around the library discovering books they might never have thought to read.

 

Blogger Mrs. Karpiuk has also designed some clever free Pokemon inspired Digital Citizenship posters which she has made available for download that you could use to decorate the library as part of your digital literacy lessons.

4. Launch your library code club to improve digital literacy as well as STEM skills

National Literacy and Numeracy Week is the perfect time to hold a sign-on day for your school library’s Code Club.

Softlink recently hosted a webinar with Ian Wedlock from Code Club Australia who spoke about how maths, science and technology skills are improved by coding lessons. Have a listen to our webinar and visit Code Club Australia’s website to find out more.

5. Blackout poems can help student’s creativity to shine through

The process of writing poetry can be very daunting to students, but have you heard about Newspaper Blackout Poetry? The trend is based on the book “Newspaper Blackout” by Austin Kleon and although the end result might look like something from a heavily censored CIA file, it can lead to some creative outcomes.

All you will need are some newspapers and a black Sharpie.

Have a watch of this Quick tutorial on how to make a newspaper blackout poem

 

6. Get a grasp of letters and numbers

Alphabet sensory play is great for younger students who are still learning about shapes and numbers. Have a look at these fantastic and affordable sensory play projects that can be set up in your school library for some National Literacy and Numeracy Week fun!

7. Sing it from the rooftops

Young kids love a good sing along. The Library Adventure blog has put together 5 Library-Themed Songs to Promote Literacy Skills that you could teach students during National Literacy and Numeracy Week.

8. Take them on a journey to a new world

Google Lit Trips uses Google Earth to take students on a virtual journey to the places featured in famous literature. As students take their “journey”, they can explore additional resources that help them to immerse in the book. The website has created a number of trips already and they are divided into K-5, 6-8 and 9-12 titles so there is something here for every age group.

You can access existing Lit Trips at www.googlelittrips.org or learn how to build your own Lit Trip on the Sweet Integrations blog.
The CRAAP test stands for Currency, Relevancy, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose and Nicole Pagowsky has outlined her meme-themed CRAAP test on her blog

9. Set a CRAAP test (no I’m not being rude!)

Although Nicole provided the lesson to college students to teach them about how to evaluate digital resources, it lesson could easily be adapted to senior high school students to build digital literacy skills as part of National Literacy and Numeracy week.

 

10. Get students to create their own “My Two Blankets” mini blanket

The ‘Read for Australia’ national simultaneous reading event book for 2016 is ‘My Two Blankets’. After reading the book, have students create their own mini blanket that illustrates the things in their life that are special to them. For some easy instructions, have a look at the Cleverpatch website - www.cleverpatch.com.au/ideas/details/my-two-blankets-mini-blanket.

Bonus Activity – Use your Oliver v5 Library Management System to Promote! Promote! Promote!

Make it easy for your school community to get involved in National Literacy and Numeracy Week by leveraging the tools you already have at your disposal in Oliver v5.

 

• Catalogue the websites we’ve recommended above, as well as highlight the resources and activities listed on the National Literacy and Numeracy Week website.
• Use Oliver v5’s Reading Lists to collate all the related resources in an easily accessible format. Did you know you can even assign the National Literacy and Numeracy Week logo to the reading list to make it easier to find? See our example below:

• Use the easy to configure carousels to show your reading lists on the Oliver Homepage to encourage exploration of related resources
• Create an attractive banner to advertise the week.
• Quickly add an Information Box to the Oliver v5 Homepage to promote any activities that are being run in the library or school

 

Step by step guides on how to do all the above are available from the Help resources in your Oliver v5 system.