A pirate's life for me!

Lucky me! I am the librarian in a wonderful primary school outside of Chicago. The library is a beautiful space, and making sure it's a happy welcoming place for both students and staff is my goal. I am so fortunate to have a wonderful library assistant. She is creative and has idea after idea for promoting reading in the library. We make a great team! Of course, Pinterest is also our silent partner. We try to put our own twist on the ideas we find, but sometimes it's hard to improve on a great display and you may recognize a few ideas from around the web.
I wanted a place to gather the many photos of the bulletin boards, shelves, themes, and displays that my assistant and I have put together, and a blog seems like a good idea. Maybe this will serve as an inspiration to someone else.

Last year we decided on a pirate theme. I am responsible for a bulletin board that is down the hall from the library; closer to the main office. I like to introduce out theme at the beginning of the school year on that board. Here it is! Yes, those are "gold coins" hot glued to the bunting around the edges. the bunting is just red paper.

I should mention that I am the luckiest girl alive because I am Aunt Susan's niece! Aunt Susan is a retired Kindergarten teacher  in Michigan, and my biggest fan! When I started working as a librarian, she asked me if I needed any help in getting ready for the school year. Of course, Aunt Susan lives 200 miles away,  so the options were a bit limited. As you can see below, I have two walls of great big, wonderful, bright windows in the library. They are awesome, but they also overlook the playground. That means that when I sit in the rocking chair to read to all the little ones on the reading steps, they would much rather watch the PE classes going on, or the mowing, or the birds in the bushes! Hence the shades! The shades let in lots of light, but keep the view under control. BUT, the shades are boring! That's where Aunt Susan comes in. She made banners to hang in front of the shades and let me tell you, she made banners for holidays, banners for seasons, banners for books, banners for themes and in this photo, banner for pirates! Her banners set the stage for the rest of the library. They are the first thing you see when you come in and everyone comments. More about Aunt Susan later, but just let me repeat: I am the LUCKIEST girl because I have my Aunt Susan!

The empty shelves you see below were waiting to be filled with face out books. This is our nonfiction section, even though the picture book characters "live" up above.

Is this amazing or what?! My assistant is married to a very talented carpenter who came up with this ship's mast for us. Wood on the bottom with rope coiled to support the pole and mast. We added the gauze and nets and the jolly roger up on top. Before we added the nets and flag, other staff members though we were creating an Easter display! But once we placed in on the check out "ship" it all started to make sense. Yes, I know it's facing the wrong way, but hey, it's the atmosphere that counts!

 More pirate themed decor on the outside doors to welcome the little buckaneers!

Another bulletin board, just outside the library. Messy ropes, but hey, you get the idea.

Had to throw this in, not only does it show off our bunting on the ceiling, but it was my birthday and someone sent me as many balloons as I am old! That's a lot of balloons! (thanks Aunt Susan!)