#sol20- March 3, 2020
I frequently buy new books for the classroom, it’s no surprise I am a reading addict. On Thursday in preparation for my weekend trip to Bangkok, I asked my class what books I should look for and they gave me quite a list. I took the list with me and shopped, shopped, shopped. Lugging 18 new books to school this morning was heavy work.
We were a bit pressed for time at Morning Meeting, so I did not share the new books right away but told the class that I would share them later. All of a sudden, in a quiet moment as we were getting ready to start reading L. blurted out, “She’s got Hilo 6!”
Of course, that got everyone excited, so we had to take a few minutes for me to share the new books and I promised we would stick pick before the end of the day. “Stick picking” is a tradition in our class whenever we get new books. Each student’s name is on a popsicle stick and we use this for all kids of situations, but stick picking for books is extra exciting.
At recess a former student, P., stopped by, “What did you get?” he asked. He took a quick look and was excited about several. He knows the rule though, current students have priority, so I encouraged him to stop by at the end of a day.
Just before library we had one minute, so I stick picked for three of the new books, with promises for more at the end of the day. The general rule is that they should only take home one book at a time, but that is more easily enforced with new books because they all know who has borrowed which new book. Surprisingly, L. had his eye on a different book- the Garfield Fat Pack #17. He was warning other students off of it.
At the end of the day, we had more time, so all students had a chance to pick a book to borrow, as a few already had books at home. P. did stop by and left with Bad Guys 10 quite happily.
Tomorrow many of the books will already be returned read so that we can stick pick again.
Ms. Victor Reads 
I love the term “stick-picking”. I use those popsicle sticks often, but I’ve never referred to it that way. You’re lucky to have such enthusiastic readers. Cultivating that joy is one of the best parts about teaching.
What a great way to generate excitement about choosing books! Stick-picking sounds like such a fun practice. Kudos to your for bringing joy like this into your classroom!
I like the stick-picking (Grammarly doesn’t like this word!)! We use this along with an app called “Team Shake” to give us random names or groups. This is a great idea to get books into the hands of students!
Thanks for sharing your class’s excitement AND how you get your books out! 🙂