September 12, 2013 by plemmonsa

Little Free Libraries Open for Business

Barrow Little Free Library

After a year long project with last year’s 5th graders, our 2 Little Free Libraries are finally open for business. This project has been one of the most meaningful ones that I have been a part of. Just to highlight a few accomplishments of everyone involved:

After a post on the Barrow Media Center Facebook page that simply described a wish to have a LFL, teacher Sara Cross jumped on board to make this project happen in 5th grade.
Art teacher, Rita Foretich, along with her student teacher took a huge leadership role in creating multiple jobs for students, using Google sketchup to design libraries, and committing to painting the libraries in art.
Co-founder Rick Brooks took time out of his busy schedule to skype with our students to answer their questions and encourage them on their project.
Students in 5th grade wrote persuasive letters to multiple places which resulted in Lay Park becoming our 2nd location and Home Depot built and donated the 2 libraries and paint.
Students in 5th grade encouraged students in the whole school to donate books which resulted in about 18 boxes of used books to fill the libraries. Other incredible supporters like Barrow grandparent, Camilla Bracewell, donated money to support the registration of the libraries and additional supply & book purchases.
Our project won the Eve Carson Service Learning Award at the 5th grade moving on ceremony

Our move into our new school delayed our installation a bit. Mrs. Foretich kept the libraries over the summer and gave them some coats of clear coat to protect them from the weather. Her husband also spent time making sure that the doors on the libraries opened smoothly after getting a bit sticky from the clear coat.

We entered this year with one big final step: installation. I should have known that once again our community would step up to support this project. Susan Henderson, librarian at Fowler Drive, suggested that her neighbor Chase Cook, who is a Barrow parent, would be a good person to contact. She even took time to ask him herself. Chase was more than happy to help. Another Barrow parent, Chris Adams, was suggested, and without hesitation he also agreed to help. I was amazed that two parents who weren’t even involved in the project along the way were so willing to step up and offer their talents and service to this project. Chase and Chris spent a hot Friday afternoon digging the holes at Barrow and Lay Park and installing both libraries. I can’t thank them enough for their time and hard work.

Refilling the Barrow Little Free Library

On Sunday September 8, I filled the Barrow Little Free Library with books. The Barrow library features our school theme of “Where am I in the world?” You’ll find the tree that owns itself, Georgia peaches and peanuts, the GA flag & US flag, and GA football. This week on our morning news show, I showed a video to all students explaining what this new mysterious box was all about.

The afternoon after the video was shown was a busy time for our library and it was almost empty that day as students were eager to take home a book. We’ve already had to refill it once.

Lay Park Library

On Monday September 9, Randy Haygood opened the Lay Park Little Free Library. This library features an old Barrow school look. A giant sun radiates from the roof and the back features a beautiful flower garden. I delivered 6 boxes of books to him so that he would have books to refill the library for a few weeks. I can’t wait to see how this little library supports reading at Lay Park and the surrounding communities.

Lay Park Library back view

These libraries are truly a gift. They represent so many voices, ideas, and creativity from students, parents, grandparents, and our community. Thank you Athens community for supporting this project. Enjoy these libraries for years to come.

May 15, 2013 by plemmonsa

The Award-Winning 5th Grade Little Free Library Project

Our Little Free Library was presented to the school during the 5th Grade Moving On Ceremony

Today was our 5th grade Moving On Ceremony. This is a very special day where every 5th grader is honored for their time at our school. Our teachers worked together to write tweets about each student to highlight some of their great qualities. Another portion of the ceremony is awards. Again, this is a very special time because so many students are honored for their many gifts: academics, citizenship, service, creativity, and more. Among the awards are some memorial awards which honor Barrow Buddies who were taken from our world way too soon. The Eve Carson Service Learning Award is one of those awards. The award is described in this way.

Eve Carson

Several ideas are important at Barrow School—learning, service and fun. Service-Learning—the intentional connection of service and learning is something we are growing here. Service-Learning adds the very important part of self-reflection to a project. Through Service-Learning you come to understand yourself and your world in a different way.Well, when we put together service, learning and fun we quite naturally thought of Eve Carson. Eve was an outstanding Barrow Buddy who continued to lead an outstanding academic and personal life. As difficult as it is today to not have Eve here, we are so thankful for her example of living a meaningful life and for the inspiration she will continue to give Barrow Buddies through the years. Each year hereafter, an award in her name will be given in honor of a service learning project completed by a class or group at Barrow Pre-K-5th Grade.

This year, I nominated the 5th grade Little Free Library Project for this award. It exemplifies service learning because every Barrow 5th grader was involved in the project in multiple ways. Students learned so much about a commitment to serving their community and thinking beyond just ourselves. Today, we learned that our project was chosen as this year’s recipient of the Eve Carson Service Learning Memorial Award. I am honored that our project will be listed on the memorial plaque among so many other inspiring projects that have served our Barrow community and beyond. Sarah James, Barrow 5th grader, presented one of the Little Free Libraries as the gift to our school during the ceremony. Our 5th graders should be very proud of their accomplishment that will provide more access to free books for our community for years to come.

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May 9, 2013 by plemmonsa

Painting our Little Free Libraries

Paint generously donated by the Athens Oconee Home Depot

It’s been awhile since I’ve done an update on our 2 Little Free Libraries. We’ve had so many end-of-the-year events that it has slowed us down a bit. Mrs. Foretich, our art teacher, and I sat down and looked at the designs that student groups submitted and narrowed it down to the 2 designs. One will feature things that show “where I am in the world”. It will include GA & US symbols as well as some Athens symbols. The other design features a sun shine with a red color that resembles the bricks of Barrow school. Ms. Foretich worked with Kenneth Sims and other employees at the Athens-Oconee Home Depot to select paints, and once again Home Depot generously donated these items. I can’t say “Thank You” enough to this business. They have been a huge supporter of this project.

While the 5th grade is practicing for the Moving On Ceremony and making music videos in music class, Mrs. Foretich is pulling small groups to paint. Students primed both libraries first. Then, designs were drawn on in pencil before beginning the painting process. Students repeatedly went back to the paper designs and also talked with the designers to make sure the design was staying true to the vision. Students even worked on mixing paints to get various shades of colors that were needed on the libraries.

Next week, Mrs. Foretich and I will travel to Lay Park and meet with Randy Haygood to discuss the exact location of our second library. KenDarius, a Barrow 5th grader, is working on a plan for some rising 4th & 5th graders to deliver books to this library throughout next year as it needs to be filled. He will join us next week when we meet with Randy.

Throughout this project, we’ve tried to keep students at the center. They have been a part of almost every decision in the project and were instrumental in getting us the supplies that we needed through their carefully written letters. Of course, this student involvement has stretched this project to a year-long project, but I think it just shows how when you take time to allow students to participate in the process, rich and rewarding experiences and learning occur.

Paint generously donated by the Athens Oconee Home Depot

April 4, 2013 by plemmonsa

More Great Little Free Library News

Labels, bumper stickers, ideas, and more were in our package from Little Free Libraries.

I love that I get to continue to share great news from our Little Free Library Project. Here are some more great things that have happened:

We were approved to put our library at Lay Park. This was in response to a student letter and a great phone call with Randy Haygood, facility supervisor
Camilla Bracewell, amazing superhero library volunteer & Barrow grandparent, became a supporter of our project through a donation and conversations with people in the community.
Our Little Free Libraries are now registered. We received our signs in the mail!
Our libraries are now in art waiting to be painted once we have a design decided.

Our official signs will be mounted on our libraries once they are painted.

I love that the signs are made from reclaimed wood from Wisconsin’s Amish Country.

April 2, 2013 by plemmonsa

Exciting Little Free Library News

Kenny Sims, Operations Manager with Athens Home Depot, donates the 2 Little Free Libraries to Barrow

Two major things happened today with our Little Free Libraries. I began talks with a possible location for our 2nd library and our 2 libraries were delivered by Home Depot!

I have to say again that we went into this project with a lot of faith in our community and amazing things are happening. Here are a few recent things:

Several students from other grades have come to tell me that they are cleaning out their home libraries to bring us books that they no longer need.
Several people have brought in books to fill the libraries already.
People donated money during the book fair which was almost enough to register both of our libraries. The 5th graders are about to each bring in $1, which will help us reach that goal. Our library numbers will be 5559 and 5560
A student who wrote a persuasive letter was beaming when he found out that his letter had been received by the recipient.
Home Depot #0129 continues to be a very generous donor to this project. They have built and donated both libraries and are now working with our art teacher to get supplies for painting the 2 libraries. They will also help us with the final supplies for installing both libraries. I can’t thank them enough for their generosity. They definitely have my future home improvement business!

5th graders immediately came to see the 2 libraries

March 29, 2013 by plemmonsa

Little Free Library Progress Update

Athens Home Depot is building and donating 2 Little Free Libraries for us to decorate

Very exciting news! We just heard from Home Depot in Athens that our 2 Little Free Libraries are almost ready for delivery to the school. Kenneth Simms, Operations Manager, sent us a photo of the progress late last night. We can’t wait to get these libraries to our school to begin decorating them in art! We can’t thank Home Depot enough for all they are doing!

March 28, 2013 by plemmonsa

Second Little Free Library

Joel typed his letter, conference with me and his teachers, addressed his envelope, and dropped it in the mail

We are currently looking for a home for our 2nd Little Free Library that is being built by Home Depot. Our school attendance zone stretches from Five Points into downtown Athens, so the students wanted a library to go in each end of our zone. Many of our students live near Lay Park, Lyndon House, and the downtown fire department so they really want our 2nd library to go near that area. Today, a letter was mailed out to Lay Park by a student who goes to Lay Park a lot. Many of our students use this space during the summer and after school, so it really would be a perfect spot for our 2nd library. Students who live in that area could take books from our school donation site and make sure the library stays full. It would be a great source of community service and responsibility for our students. I’m sure that there will be many steps to get approval to put a library in a spot like this. Now, we will wait and see what the response is from the county and Lay Park, but we are going o think positive thoughts for now.

Joel’s letter explains LFL and makes a personal connection

March 21, 2013 by plemmonsa

Little Free Library Update

A display is ready to inform shoppers at our book fair about our Little Free Library project

We have very exciting news in our 5th grade Little Free Library project. Before spring break about 14 kids mailed letters to Home Depot in Athens to ask if they could support our project with some materials. Kenneth Sims, operation manager, emailed me back to ask for a specific list of what we needed. After some more research on the Little Free Library site and consulting with my talented Dad, I sent him a list of what we would need. I knew the list was a lot to ask for, so I told him that we would appreciate anything that they could do.

He emailed me back with great news. Home Depot is donating all of the materials we need to build the libraries, building both libraries for us, delivering them to our school for the kids to decorate, and helping us install them when the time comes. I was absolutely floored. I even got a call from the builder before he started the project to just make sure that all of the plans that they were doing fit with what we needed. I can’t wait to share pictures with you of our project.

We went into this project with a lot of faith that our community would come through for us to make this project happen. It is so great to know that a major business in the community is so giving of their resources in the name of children, community, and literacy.

Now, we have a lot of work to do, but one major weight is lifted off our shoulders. The kids were beaming when I went to their classes to share the news with them. One student in particular was very excited because we realized that she included my email address in her letter in order for the manager to contact us. She was the only student to do this.

Our next steps include:

Painting the designs on our libraries
Nailing down our second location with some more persuasive letters
Raising money for the registration of the libraries
Doing a book drive to fill the libraries and have a stock pile of books to replenish the libraries
Writing speeches to present the libraries at the Moving On Ceremony.
Installing the downtown library in its location
Probably some things we haven’t thought of!

If you would love to help us with our project, we are wide open for help. One way you could help us is by purchasing a book at our book fair next week or shopping our wishlist at our online book fair through April 5th. Here’s info on our online fair:

It’s Book Fair time at our school! I’ve created a classroom wish list to add new books to our classroom library. You can view my classroom wish list and purchase books from our school Book Fair website. These books will be treasured by students for years to come.

You can visit our online Book Fair anytime until 04/05/2013. All books purchased will be shipped directly to me at school with no shipping charge. Thanks for getting our class excited about reading.

Your support is appreciated,

Andy Plemmons

Scholastic Book Fairs inspire a lifetime love of reading. A percentage of the total proceeds raised during the Book Fair will stay with the school and help get more kids reading, kids reading more! Visit the Book Fair Web site for detailed information.

February 28, 2013 by plemmonsa

Skyping with Little Free Library

Our 5th grade Little Free Library Project is moving ahead. You can read about our progress here and here. A few weeks ago, I talked with Rick Brooks, co-founder of the Little Free Library movement, on the phone. He contacted me after seeing my Youtube video introducing the project to our 5th graders. After a few emails and facebook posts back and forth, we finally had a long phone conversation where we discussed other Little Free Library projects in schools as well as some potential ways that technology could be incorporated into our Barrow project. I shared with him how our students were working in teams where each student had a specific job to do such as researching, writing, designing, and presenting. During our call, he offered to help us in any way he was able to, so I suggested a Skype session with our students. He was happy to do this.

On Tuesday and Thursday, Rick skyped with researchers, writers, and task managers from Ms. Cross and Ms. Slongo’s Class. He told them a bit about the mission and vision of Little Free Libraries, shared specific parts of the website students might visit, and suggested some videos for them to watch. The kids were able to ask Rick questions about things like green building techniques, location of little free libraries, and which libraries seemed to be more popular than others. We even had a student have a conversation with Rick in Spanish.

More than anything, this Skype session made the project more “real” for the students. They left the session with a new energy for the project. Rick is following what we do, and we appreciate the time and energy that he has put into this worldwide movement and especially for taking time out of his busy schedule to support our small project here in Athens!

February 12, 2013 by plemmonsa

5th Grade Little Free Library Project Part 2

Students designed on paper before using Google Sketchup

Our 5th grade Little Free Library Project is picking up speed. Thanks to the amazing collaboration of Rita Foretich and her student teacher, this project is really getting off the ground. In art, students from both 5th grade classes have been split into teams of 4-5 students. Each team has a lead designer, a task manager, a researcher, a writer, and a presenter. Each job has specific responsibilities which Ms. Foretich and her student teacher constantly check in on. They also give the task managers checklists to help them check in with each person on the team.

The student teacher is a Google Sketchup expert, so she has the lead designers using this tool to design a potential Little Free Library. Students have made sketches on paper and moved to Google Sketchup to create a model of their library. Presenters are putting together a presentation to inform our audience about each library design. We may end up having the principal choose 2 designs or we may move forward with a student vote.

The researchers and writers are working with me in the library to research the Little Free Library site for information about building the actual structure. As we research the many tips on the site, we are considering other topics that we may need to research such as reusing materials and green building techniques. We’re thinking of careers that we may need to research in order to identify experts to connect with or people to target for persuasive writing. The writers are writing persuasive letters to send to potential donors, builders, or collaborators on this project. They are also considering persuasive tweets they may need to craft for me to tweet out to target audiences for support.

5th graders used the Google Research tool in Google Docs to look for reading statistics

I’m also working with the 5th grade classes on persuasive writing techniques. We used the Read Write Think powerpoint of strategies and thought about what information we might include underneath each strategy. I also showed them the research tool within Google Docs. The students (and teachers) were excited that you could search for a topic such as “reading statistics” to find quotes about reading in the United States and automatically cite the source within your Google Doc. I think this tool alone will spill over into many other projects now that the students know how to use it! All 5th graders are writing letters to businesses, builders, parents, students, and other groups in order to ask for money, labor, supplies, books, and a location for our 2nd library. The teachers are continuing this writing in the regular classroom as well as exploring the Little Free Library site for additional information. One student was even able to locate a Little Free Library from his hometown in India!

Google Sketchup is proving to be a helpful tool in design

I can’t wait to see where this project goes because it is certainly exploring many of the standards that our 5th graders work on in a variety of areas.