Over the last few years, I've developed a system that works beautifully for keeping our classroom library organized and I am excited to share it with you today!
It's so important to create a warm and inviting classroom library for children, especially in the primary grades. The more contact children have with books, the better readers they will become. As a first grade teacher, I promote better reading performance by reading to my students several times throughout the day as well as having a large classroom library for my students to browse. Every day, I allot 30 minutes of un-interrupted quiet reading time for my students. During this time, students are allowed to read books that they chose themselves from our classroom library. They keep their books in gallon size ziplock bags. I believe there is a lot of value in having students select their own books, as it serves as great motivation for learning to read. Think about it this way--would you rather read a book that someone tells you to read or would you rather read a book that you chose on your own? Being in a book club, I can totally relate to this!
Each Friday, my students go "book shopping." I call one table group at a time and students take the books they've been reading throughout the week over to the library. They look inside the covers of their books for the label that will show them where they originally found the books. They can quickly find the buckets with the matching pictures and place their books back in the proper place. Once their books are put away, students can select new books for their bags. We spend a lot of time at the beginning of each year with procedures and rules for our library. Because of this, the students really take accountability for keeping the library in order.
Below are some pictures of my classroom library. I've been collecting books for many, many years {even before I was teaching!}. Having a wide variety of books at various levels is important for developing readers. I keep all of my books out all year because I have the space to do so, but you could easily revolve your collection based on upcoming holidays or units you are studying.
As mentioned above, I keep my library very organized with picture sticker labels and matching bucket labels. I use the Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue set in my classroom, but I have a Black and White set as well as a Turquoise, Red, Orange, and Lime set. You can take a look at the sets by clicking the links. The end of the year/summer is a perfect time to re-organize your library!
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xo
Megan
It's so important to create a warm and inviting classroom library for children, especially in the primary grades. The more contact children have with books, the better readers they will become. As a first grade teacher, I promote better reading performance by reading to my students several times throughout the day as well as having a large classroom library for my students to browse. Every day, I allot 30 minutes of un-interrupted quiet reading time for my students. During this time, students are allowed to read books that they chose themselves from our classroom library. They keep their books in gallon size ziplock bags. I believe there is a lot of value in having students select their own books, as it serves as great motivation for learning to read. Think about it this way--would you rather read a book that someone tells you to read or would you rather read a book that you chose on your own? Being in a book club, I can totally relate to this!
Each Friday, my students go "book shopping." I call one table group at a time and students take the books they've been reading throughout the week over to the library. They look inside the covers of their books for the label that will show them where they originally found the books. They can quickly find the buckets with the matching pictures and place their books back in the proper place. Once their books are put away, students can select new books for their bags. We spend a lot of time at the beginning of each year with procedures and rules for our library. Because of this, the students really take accountability for keeping the library in order.
Below are some pictures of my classroom library. I've been collecting books for many, many years {even before I was teaching!}. Having a wide variety of books at various levels is important for developing readers. I keep all of my books out all year because I have the space to do so, but you could easily revolve your collection based on upcoming holidays or units you are studying.
As mentioned above, I keep my library very organized with picture sticker labels and matching bucket labels. I use the Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue set in my classroom, but I have a Black and White set as well as a Turquoise, Red, Orange, and Lime set. You can take a look at the sets by clicking the links. The end of the year/summer is a perfect time to re-organize your library!
xo
Megan
2 comments:
Very Cool! We have some goodies we would like to donate to your classroom! feel free to contact me at ben@classroomlibrary.com
Thank you s much for this post. I am wrestling with my library right now. I am teaching kindergarten now and we do Daily 5. I want my books accessible all the time and I have A LOT of books! I really like how yours is set up and prefer it to what I was thinking. Just curious where you purchased your bins and how much they cost, if you remember. I don't have the bookshelves, so I was using clear bins with lids so that I can stack them. It just is not inviting enough as when the bins are open like yours. I had some labels that I was using, but I actually think i am going to jump ship and purchase yours since you have them laid out to fit on labels for both outside and inside the books. I think it would save me a huge amount of time. Just trying to figure it out so that I can tackle it over the summer. I cannot go another year without it organized! :)
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