It's that time of year when we have to entice the children in the school where I work to return all of their school library books for the summer. It's true, that in the past, I've had to beg and borrow to get some of the books back...one year I even shamelessly gave away a "sweet treat" aka a Jolly Rancher candy to anyone who returned their books.
This year we are trying something new. A few weeks ago, I started collecting donations for a "book swap" of sorts. Now, as each class comes in, every student who has returned all of their library books gets a ticket to pick a book from the book swap. The book swap books are spread out all over the tables and kids get to browse around for the one they want. When they find the book they want, they hand me the red ticket and get to walk away with a book in hand to keep. All of the book swap books were donated by teachers and students in the school. So far, it's a pretty big hit, I'll see this week, if we have had most of the books returned. Does anyone else have any good ideas for getting all of the books returned? I'd love to hear them!