Two Freebies, a Sale, and a New School Year!

My last post was all about FREE products on TpT for your school library. (Go visit it if you would like to download 50+ freebies that you can use in the library!)

After writing that post, I decided I was due to add a couple of brand new freebies for school librarians to my own TpT store. And I’m going to be honest with you…I kind of like these freebies…a lot.

I’ve had some time over this summer to reflect on teaching and my place in it all, and my conclusion has been this: if I don’t help kids learn to be kind, loving, accepting, compassionate, and hungry for knowledge, not much else matters. Realistically, a lot of what our kids are learning is going into their short-term memory and is on its way out after it gets chicken-scratched onto a test. Who they are becoming will last the rest of their lives. (I know that I’m not the first one to come up with this idea, but I feel like during certain seasons of life as a teacher and a parent, you look at the big picture more…and I guess that’s where I am right now.)

With that in mind, I posted a free coloring page I developed for my own students when I read the book Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller to them last year. I didn’t put it up because I think the coloring page is that amazing, or anything like that, but because I really hope that other teachers and librarians will read this book with their students, or will take the time, for no particular reason, to talk about kindness. Like, often. And if one day the kids want to color a picture while that talk is going on, so be it.

The second freebie, which I literally JUST put up right before I’m writing this post, is a poster set that addresses the idea that libraries are for everyone and that there is something for everyone in the library. At the last TpT sale, I picked up some super cute clip art of gorgeous, diverse kids (by Illumismart), which got me thinking about the awesomeness of libraries and how they are a perfect place for ALL types of kids to gather and learn together. The knowledge, entertainment, technology, and enrichment available in libraries appeal to all groups of people and can benefit anyone. Kids might seek out libraries for different reasons, but libraries are spaces for everybody in a community to grow in knowledge. So I designed this poster set for school librarians, classroom teachers, public librarians, or anyone to download and print, hoping that it will help students with different abilities and backgrounds to feel welcome to learn and create at their library.

If you are interested in either of these freebies, please please please download them, and don’t hesitate to show them to a friend who might be able to use them too. (I don’t think we can overdo the ideas of kindness, acceptance, and loving libraries and learning!)

In other news, TpT is having a one-day bonus sale on Tuesday, August 20, 2019, until 11:59 ET, and you can get up to 25% off everything in my store and around Teachers Pay Teachers! (With the school year RIGHT around the corner, I have informed my son and daughter to keep a close eye on me to keep my spending under control! I guess we’ll see how it goes…I do have candy to distract them if necessary!)

Happy New School Year! Wishing you a new school year full of love, libraries, sale prices, kindness, free stuff, candy, enthusiasm for learning, and everything awesome!

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