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| Grade 2 student Gracie C. browsing through the books on Wednesday |
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Every November, usually during the week of parent-teacher interviews, IHMS holds its annual Scholastic Book Fair. This is an ideal time to hold the Book Fair because most parents are already in the school at some point during the week to visit with their child’s teacher. The theme for this year’s book fair was “Enter the Kingdom of Books“. |
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| Students viewing books at recess |
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| Most students look forward to the Scholastic Book Fair. Of course, books aren’t difficult to find because there are plenty of stores in Winnipeg and sites on the internet (such as amazon.ca and chapters.indigo.ca) where students can purchase an even greater selection of books and accessories. But most K-8 students don’t order books off the internet, and the Scholastic Book Fair makes the process easy and convenient because they bring the books to us! Now that’s a brilliant marketing strategy! |  |
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| The book fair was set up in the front foyer of the school |
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| In addition to making it convenient for students to acquire cool books, the Scholastic Book Fair is also a school fundraiser. It’s a fundraiser because a percentage of the profits are used to buy Scholastic books for the library and for each of the individual classrooms. In each of the last few years, the book fair has raised approximately $2500 a year for the school. Out of this money, each teacher is allocated approximately $100 towards the purchase of books for their classroom, while the rest is used to purchase new Scholastic books for the library. So in addition to being a fun event, everybody benefits from the book fair. By the way, the clip art to the right is probably a bit of an exaggeration – Mrs. Radawetz, who organized the book fair, has never actually been seen doing something like this with the profits! |  |
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| The book fair had a good selection of items for all grades |
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The book fair was set up in the front foyer of the school on Monday, November 24 and ran until Thursday, November 27. The hours for the Book Fair were:
Note: When the book fair was open after school, students had to have a parent with them to purchase books. During school hours, students had to have their teacher with them during classroom designated purchase time. |
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| Grade 6 student Dominic J. was excited by the quality and selection of the Scholastic Book Fair. It turns out that he was just as excited last year! |
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| A few days before the book fair, every student was given a Preview flyer showing a few of the books that would be available for sale. In addition to these “sneak peeks”, the flyer also contained a ballot that could be filled out and entered for a prize draw of $50 worth of free books – $25 for the winning student and $25 for that student’s class. There were also smaller draws in every grade for a coupon worth $6 off the price of any book or accessory. |  |
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| A kindergarten student posing with the books he won in the class draw |
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In order to give everyone an opportunity to view the displays, a schedule was set up for each grade to do some browsing. Each class’s first visit was for viewing only, while purchases were accepted during the class’s second visit. Of course students were free to browse as they walked through the book fair on the way to the gym at lunch time, and students were free to make purchases after 3:00 if their parents accompanied them. |
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| Students viewing books during the lunch hour |
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Since the book fair was organized with the needs of K-8 students in mind, there were a wide range of reading levels available, ranging from pre-school to teenager. There were also a lot of accessories for sale, such as colourful pencils, pens that write with invisible ink (a popular item), erasers, markers, and posters. In addition, there was a small selection of gift ideas for the students to purchase.
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| Some of the different items for sale at the book fair. This year’s poster selection didn’t seem to have any posters of teenage heartthrob Justin Bieber. Hmmm….. |
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The book fair was organized by Mrs. Radawetz, the school’s librarian. In addition, a number of parent volunteers helped out behind the counter.
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| Mrs. Radawetz, the school’s librarian, organized the book fair |
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The Scholastic Book Fair is a major school event that requires a lot of planning and preparation. Thank you to Mrs. Radawetz, the parent volunteers, and everyone else who played a part in making the Scholastic Book Fair such a great success. | |