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| Grade 8 student Eldrec A. looking over the selection of books at this year’s Scholastic Book Fair |
| 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 “Monster Book Fair“. |  |
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| Part of the poster advertising the Scholastic Book Fair |
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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| Students shopping for books on Wednesday afternoon. The last picture is a photo of a grade 2 student who won the prize draw for his class. |
| 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.
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| Grade 7 student Dominic J. always gets excited during the Scholastic Book Fair. In fact, he seems to be getting more and more excited every year! To see him at the book fair during the previous 2 years, click here. |
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The book fair was set up in the front foyer of the school on Monday, November 23 and ran until Thursday, November 26. 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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| Even Mr. Fil got caught up in the excitement of the Scholastic Book Fair. When he failed to find the Justin Bieber book he was looking for, Mr. File settled for a book on hockey. But you can tell from the sadness in his eyes that this was not his first choice. |
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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| Mrs. Radawetz, the school Librarian, and Mrs. Hutsulak, a parent volunteer selling books and accessories at the book fair. |
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 had fun looking through the great selection of books |
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 pens and pencils, erasers, markers. In addition, there was a small selection of gift ideas for the students to purchase.
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| A few of the categories at the book fair |
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 serving a younger student at the book fair |
| 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. |  |
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