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| A grade 5 boy examining an interesting book on the history of “Lego” |
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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 “A cool place to discover hot books“. |
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The Scholastic Book Fair was set up in the school’s front foyer |
Most students look forward to the Scholastic Book Fair. Of course, books aren’t difficult to find – 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 the Scholastic Book Fair makes the process easy and convenient because they bring the books to us!
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| Gabriele P. posing with two different grade 7 students |
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.
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| Some of the grade 5 students during a class visit to the book fair |
The book fair was set up in the front foyer of the school on Tuesday, November 26 and ran until Thursday, November 28. The hours for the Book Fair were:
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Note: When the book fair was open after school, students had to have a parent with them to purchase books.
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On Tuesday, November 19th, 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 for $50 worth of free books – $25 for the winning student and $25 for that student’s class. In addition, there were smaller draws in every grade for a coupon worth $6 off the price of any book or accessory. |
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| Grade 5 girls looking at some of the book fair accessories |
In order to give everyone an opportunity to view the display, a schedule was set up for each grade to do some browsing. Viewing only was allowed on Tuesday afternoon, while purchases were accepted later that day (after 3:00 p.m.) when the book fair officially opened.
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| Some of the grade 7 students during a class visit to the book fair |
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, 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 categories of books and accessories on display. Yes, that’s a poster of Justin Bieber! |
The book fair was organized by the school’s two librarians – Mrs. Radawetz and Mrs. Zulyniak. In addition, a number of parent volunteers helped out behind the counter.
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| The Scholastic Book Fair was organized by the school’s two librarians – Mrs. Radawetz (with a parent volunteer in the top photo) and Mrs. Zulyniak (bottom photo) |
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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, Mrs. Zulyniak, the parent volunteers, and everyone else who played a part in making the Scholastic Book Fair such a great success. |