Managing a Successful Bookfair

Are your book fairs crazy?  Do you have enough help?  Do you get lots of students at once and then times when there's no one?

Here are just of few of my favorite tips to managing a successful book fair:

1.  Volunteers:  Before you even get started you must get volunteers signed up.  I started this step way back at the beginning of the school year.  When my PTA put out their annual "Volunteers Needed" flyer, I asked for them to add a line for library.  Then under library there were subheadings such as helping weekly in the library, helping with reading celebrations and helping with book fairs.  Then a few weeks before the book fair, I sent out a signup genius (www.signupgenius.com) for those that were willing to work.

2.  Organizing times:  The next was creating a schedule for when each grade level could come "shop".  In past book fairs my library has just been opened all day.  At the beginning of the day the lines to check out were an hour long.  Students were missing class, teachers were getting upset and I was going crazy!  So this year I created time slots for each grade level and we stuck to those times all week long.  Success!  Teachers loved how their day was not interrupted by students asking all day to head to the book fair and I was not overwhelmed with lots of students at one time.

 

3.  Boosting sales:  My favorite way to boost sales is with a classroom wish list.  My parents are wonderful about purchasing books for classroom libraries.  This year my principal added her 2 cents by picking books and creating a display.  Her books sold out!

Good luck at your next book fair!