National School Library Week Activities

National School Library Week is an opportunity for school librarians to remind students and educators of the importance of the school library, including the role it plays in learning and in the life of the school. You can use National School Library Week as a way to build excitement in your library by organizing special events and book-related games.

Celebrate National School Library Week by helping students become more familiar with your library through a scavenger hunt. Create questions that involve looking up information in books. For example, what element has the atomic number 43 or what word comes after the word "robot" in the dictionary? Write questions appropriate to different age groups and make sure you have plenty of questions. Students should work in groups to answer as many questions as they can in a set time period, or they can answer a set number of questions. Award small prizes for the students who get the most answers correct or answer a set number correctly.

This activity is a way to get the entire school involved in National School Library Week. You may want to use it to kick off the week. Have a day where students come to school dressed as their favorite literary character. You can hold a costume contest and give an award to the students with the best costume in various categories, such as nonfiction, literary fiction, mystery or history. As an alternative, students could come to school wearing at least one item of clothing that has words on it.

In the weeks leading up to National School Library Week, and during the week itself, students can compete in a book reading race. They should chose books to read and earn "miles" for each page read, or a set number of miles for each book. Students can try to earn enough miles for "trips" to Florida, Mexico, France, Egypt or another country. They can also hold a fundraiser for the library by raising money from sponsors for each book they read over a set time period.

Hold a contest for the best book. Ask students to write down a list of their favorite books, and hold a "book-off" featuring the top 10. Selections from each finalist can be read aloud in the library during National School Library Week, and the vote held on the final day to choose the school's favorite book. You might also arrange for authors to come in during lunch or after school to read selections from their books and take questions.