Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

A Bookfair is an Excellent Way to Raise Funds

A Scholastic Bookfair can be a great way for a school to earn much-needed funds for their programs. Just about everyone loves Scholastic Books. A bookfair can help your students and families create home libraries of books that they will enjoy. It is also a terrific way to build your classroom or school libraries.

There are many benefits to hosting a bookfair at your school. Most importantly, it encourages children to read books that they will enjoy for fun and pleasure and the joy of learning. A bookfair can also be a wonderful opportunity to develop a larger library of books for your school or classroom library through encouraging classroom or school donations. A bookfair generates community participation and interest on many levels, as children of all ages will show interest in reading books at a bookfair. Finally, a bookfair is a great way for a school to raise funds for its school while also encouraging learning in a fun and interesting way.

If you host a Scholastic bookfair your school can earn cash, books, reward bonuses or Instructional Resource Catalog Profits (vouchers to select educational tools or books). No matter what you choose, you will certainly benefit your school in every way simply by holding the bookfair.

Scholastic Bookfairs Give Great Step-by-Step Guides To Help Schools

The best thing about a Scholastic Bookfair is that they offer instructional guides to show you step by step how to manage your bookfair. These guides cover every topic you can think of, and all that you need is at your fingertips. The guides help you to save time and they show you what other schools have done to be successful. There is a guide for Families, for the Principal, for the Librarian and for Teachers. Each guide offers specific and valuable resources that will help these families, professionals and educators make the most of the bookfair for their school.

At the Scholastic website the Principal’s Guide has a Resources section with “copy and paste resources” about reading that can be sent home in anticipation of the bookfair. These resources include “10 Ways to Nurture a Lifelong Love of Readings” and “Connecting with Advanced Readers”. There are more than fifteen copy and paste documents that can be added to flyers, newsletters or other documents that a Principal can send home. There are also research and industry links about reading that cover topics of interest. This section is excellent because sending a flyer or some sort of communication home about the bookfair is critical, and these resources offer lots of interesting information that the Principal can include to make it unique for your school.

The Principal’s guide section also includes Success Stories to inspire. They offer other interesting ways a Principal can consider interacting with Scholastic for a positive educational experience. One such story is from Donna Barton, Principal of St. Joseph Montessori School of Columbus, Ohio. The fifth graders at this school won the grand prize for the nonfiction 2006 Scholastic Book Fair Kids Are Authors competition. They wrote a book about riddles called “What Do You Call a Rhyming Riddle? A Hinky Pinky?” The students had a terrific time collaborating on their book and creating fun riddles. Apparently they were very pleased they won the grand prize, but they had so much fun working together on the project — that the prize was less of a motivation than simply working together and sharing ideas. Stories like this work to inspire fellow Principals to participate in other Scholastic events such as the Kids Are Authors competition, or the Klutz Build-a-Book Event also held by Scholastic for younger children.

The Teacher’s Guide section includes lesson plans based on specific books published by Scholastic. Students are encouraged to name their favorite character based on Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson in one of the lesson plans. There are also printable “wish list” sheets to help a teacher build their classroom library through classroom, school and family donations.

There is also a discussion board for teachers to connect with other teachers around the country to discuss bookfairs, lesson plans and classroom libraries. This is a wonderful resource as teachers can “bounce” great ideas off of each other.

The guide for Families encourages families not to miss the bookfair because it is a wonderful opportunity for them to obtain books at a great discount and to encourage their child reach higher with their reading skills. There are printable resources about children and reading. These are according to age groups and offer tips on finding the best books for your children.

To learn more about holding a bookfair, visit the Scholastic website.

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