Hosted an unexpected free book fair today. I am a substitute teacher who met someone who wanted to donate around 100 books for my students. I am working a 2 week assignment right now. I had those books, plus, another teacher was throwing away brand new books right outside my classroom! What are the odds my students would see a ton of brand new books in the trash can right outside our room?!?! She said we can have them and she thought nobody wanted them..
The students asked if they could bring the books inside (they were all brand new, some even wrapped in plastic!), I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I don’t want anyone getting dirty but the trash bin was full of nothing but books and there were so many good ones.
Since we had these books the students decided that they want to host a free book fair for any students passing by. It was so nice to see so many kids come in and grab books. Many of these students are English learners as well so it’s amazing that they get to fall in love with reading and strengthen their language skills.
Just wanted to share this story from the day! One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Any suggestions for books I should buy or find for our next book fair?
by flats209
1 Comment
Groovy! I’ve been thinking if I should do something with a lot of my books to pare down so relatives will have less to deal with when I’m gone. I’ve thought of starting a Little Free Library, but I doubt it would be effective where I am (and probably get vandalized).
Hey! Is there a Little Free Library at/near your school? Maybe that could be a school/student/community project?
For other ideas to source books, we occasionally held book sales for charity at one of my former employers. We’d send a request for donations to employees a few weeks before the sale, then hold the sale. They turned out pretty well, although we’d wind up with dozens of copies of *Twilight* and *Fifty Shades of Gray*.