Is it book fair planning time? It will be here before we know it! Actually, you’re probably like me…I love to see the book fair arrive, but it still stresses me out a little! There’s so much to think through during the planning stages to make sure EVERYTHING runs well!
Of course, if your book fair is hosted by Scholastic, they share many good planning resources through the chairperson’s toolkit. Still… and maybe I’m just picky… (okay, I’m TOTALLY picky!!!) but I usually find myself remaking a lot of the forms and things. I like to consolidate information that I’ll need (or that the kids will need). I also like to make the forms more organized. (Plus, I’ll admit it — I want my forms to look cute-sy!)
This year, I started getting ready early… like in DECEMBER for a mid-March fair! Here’s why. Last year, during the week of my spring fair, we had a tragic, unexpected death in my family. It was terribly sad, and my husband and I needed to leave immediately and travel six hours north to support our family members. The problem was, I wasn’t QUITE ready for my fair. Not good.
My students usually shop during library classes (5 classes per day) and I had a great sub lined up who has volunteered at my book fairs in the past. So, that was going to be okay. My specials squad and some PTO moms had promised to pop in and check on her as they could.
Another LMC volunteer — who’s a retired media specialist and a GOOD friend — stepped up to cover my parent-teacher conference nights, so that was a HUGE, ENORMOUS blessing! I had before school and after school shopping sessions planned, too, though. Yikes! I just cancelled those. After all, that’s a lot to put on a friend! To make things worse for her, I had a lot of brand new volunteers who had not helped at a book fair anywhere before, and I felt terrible about it.
As always, my book fair was all planned out perfectly…in my brain. I can kind of run a fair on autopilot after 40+ of them…but on paper? To leave for a sub and my precious volunteer? Not so much. As we drove north, I sure wished that I had been able to leave behind a little folder of helpful forms and tools. I felt like I had dropped the book fair ball in a big way. So, I decided during that funeral trip that I would NEVER be caught so unprepared again. This resource is the result.
Although it’s not comprehensive, I’m kinda excited about my little collection of book fair planning tools : forms, volunteer nametags, thank you notes, dino décor, and so on! Mine’s all printed, prepped, and organized for our upcoming, “dino-mite” book fair. It felt SO AMAZING that I decided someone else might benefit from my pre-planning, too, Sooo, if you’re interested… take a peek at it in my TpT store. Many of the forms are editable, so you can personalize and re-word to your heart’s content. Here’s to 1) being prepared, 2) good friends, and 3) encouraging kiddos to love reading!
NOTE: As of 2023, this blog post describes a resource that has been discontinued.
