Off Hiatus Just in Time for School Library Month!

Hi, everyone! Cue here with a blog post to kick off Spring 2022. April is right around the corner which means--Let's Celebrate School Library Month! I recently participated in a webinar with library rockstars Amanda Jones, KC Boyd, Blake Hopper, Fallon Farokhi, and Martha Bongiorno. It was a great opportunity to share and learn about all the amazing activities you can potentially carry out in your library during the month of April. 

To access the recording, check out this link. 

During the webinar I mentioned that I do a School Library Month bingo activity with my students and staff. I received numerous emails and thought it would be a perfect opportunity to share it here. 

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I first created the bingo call cards on Canva. You can check out of the card download file here. This is the template I have on Canva if you'd like to edit for your library. 

I then upload the images on Bingo Baker and generate the amount of bingo cards I need. Once the design is set, I share a link to the "game" on the library's Google Classroom stream.

Create your card by uploading images or using text.

When students or staff click on the link, this allows them to generate a unique card. I then call a couple of cards each day on Google Classroom, morning announcements, and via email. The cool thing about using this website is that I can check out bingo cards on the "back end" and verify their win.

If you click on "Options" it will give you the option to prompt players to enter their name so you know who the card belongs to

For an example of how the cards look like from a bingo player's point of view check out this link.
Now, maybe online bingo isn't what you had in mind. Perhaps you were considering more of a "challenge". I decided I was also going to offer that opportunity and make the prize a little more enticing. What will the prizes be? I'm still not sure. BUT...this is the SLM Bingo Challenge Card I created on Canva. You can find the template here. 

"Okay Cue, but how are you going to share it with students? Do you share it by printing them or digitally?". 
That's a good question. I don't plan on printing these in color on cardstock because that's a lot of ink and cardstock. I thought about it, but hey if you have the resources go for it! This year, I am going to post this link on Google Classroom which forces each student to make a copy of the card. Once they earn "bingo" they submit on our library's Google Classroom Help Desk. The help desk is really just a fake assignment which purpose is to serve as an area within the LMS to ask me questions privately. If you're interested in how this works--check out the video tutorial I made my students. 

Now, you definitely do not have to run your bingo or challenge this way, but feel free to use any of the template links to adjust to your library's needs. I hope this information helps and if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram @cuethelibrarian. 

Wishing everyone an AMAZING School Library Month!