Classroom Library Organization 101

Well, I feel like I finally have the chance to sit down and blog! My students had their last day of school last week, then last Friday and this Monday, we had some grade level meetings to plan for next year. My room now looks like this:

(Yes, those are rough drafts of anchor charts - the version I do in front of the kids before rewriting them neatly - covering my shelves on the right. Reduce, reuse, recycle, right? :))

As I was packing up, the one area of the room that I could honestly sit back and say, "I love how this part of my room is set up!" is my classroom library. It's kind of evolved through the years, and it's definitely in the most manageable version yet as it is right now.

When I first started teaching first grade, I used a labeling system much like Beth Newingham's, in which each book had a detailed label (return address size) on the upper left corner. (I tried to find a picture but couldn't!) It was a bit challenging for my firsties to get their books back in the right bins.

So, over the course of a summer, I brought library books home for a relabel (which, trust me, isn't too fun!).

I used Un-du to peel off the old labels (this actually works pretty darn well! It's like Goo Gone but it works on paper).

(You can get it at scrapbook stores or on Amazon.)

Then I decided on the colors I'd use to label each major section of my library. I decided on yellow for my fiction books that aren't in series, green for my fiction books that are within a series or author (Biscuit books, books by Kevin Henkes, etc.), and blue for nonfiction books. I also have a small number of chapter books, which I labeled with pink stickers, and a bin of books in Spanish (both fiction and nonfiction), which I labeled with orange.

These are my fiction books (with yellow stickers), plus my leveled books. (The awesome Kristen from Ladybug's Teacher Files has FREE printable leveled book bin labels for both books and book bins.)

Some of my series books (with green labels).

Some of my nonfiction books (with blue labels). After I took the picture I realized that Abraham Lincoln book was majorly crooked, and it's driving me nuts in this picture!

Each of my book bin labels (see this post to download them free) has the colored, numbered sticker on it. I figured out what each of my book bins would be, then sorted them into fiction, series/author, and nonfiction, then just went in order numerically. The one problem is that it would be hard to add a bin into fiction, say, since the next bin after the last fiction bin is a series bin. Does that make sense?

Now, here's the key... Label each and every book with the same color sticker and number you used on the bin. I repeat... Label each book! I have had many teachers ask me how I get the books returned to the right bin, and this is absolutely key. I train students at the beginning of the year to understand the library organization, and within a couple weeks, my first graders can do this easily. (I have a librarian each week as a class job who is in charge of returning books to the library bins.)

A close up of a very popular bin (Elephant and Piggie). Note the numbered sticker on the bin.

And note the matching sticker on the book!

While you can get those colored dot stickers at office supply stores, I liked that I could buy them in individual color sets through Demco, a library supply site. They have bunches of sizes and colors. I also buy the clear stickers that are a little bigger to cover the number stickers.

Organizing my library was a major investment of time (almost entirely because I changed systems partway through my teaching career... Had I started from the beginning with this system, it would have been easy peasy!), but TOTALLY worth it, as even my young first graders can easily navigate the library, find books they need, and return books independently.

Hope this helps some of you get your library set up - or revamped! - for a new school year!

Movin' on Over to Bloglovin'!

Well, I've finally emerged from the piles and piles of files, cumulative records, student work to return, awards for students... You get the picture! We just had our last day on Thursday, but then we had two more days of professional development. Today was the first day of summer for me!

So, I've known that Google Reader is disappearing for some time... So sad, right? Well, there's something to fill the void... Bloglovin'! I'm superduper new to this. But alas, Teaching in High Heels has a great, easy tutorial HERE. If you're ready to switch and want to keep following my blog, just click below!


Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Next Year, I'm Definitely Going To...

Hello everyone! I'm back in action here. :) It's been just a tad bit cuh-RAZY at work, as you all well know. We aren't out until June 20, but with testing, assembly prep (my students are singing "Surfin' USA" and are cute as all get out, although I don't think I ever want to hear that song again after Wednesday afternoon), end of year filing, etc... It's all kinds of crazy.

But I was blog hoppin' a bit and found this great linky from Finding JOY in 6th Grade...

 

I just had to partake. :)

At the beginning of every quarter, I swear up and down that I'm not going to fall behind with grades, that I'm going to enter them in our electronic gradebook the day I give an assignment... Then life happens, and I have a pile of papers roughly the size of a phone book to grade! That's my life this week, anyways. I really MUST make sure I set aside time to grade each day... And I think part of that will mean spreading out the days I give assessments. Does anyone else give a million on Fridays? Anyways, something that I have found helpful when it comes to report card time is keeping track of the end-of-quarter grades so I can see at a glance how kids are doing from quarter to quarter. I know, there's probably some way to easily see that electronically, but I like to have a paper version in my gradebook that I can use to check very quickly. I made the form below (click it to download FREE) to help me track those end of term grades:

I find the process of forming guided reading and even writing groups to be a pretty easy thing, but for math, that's a whole new thing. We're moving away from Everyday Math next year and making teacher-written units, so perhaps it will be easier to group kids based on a particular skill. I need to make sure we have more of a mini-lesson/guided practice/independent practice and conferring set-up... and more math games, too.

Our school district is becoming pretty big on UBD, but I'm definitely guilty of not having a unit entirely finished before I start teaching it! My goal is to get it together and have those units totally done before I start teaching them... Printables, rubrics, and all.

Well, I'm off to grade and laminate some more before bed... Have a great week! :)

Teaching Blog Round Up!

Just a quick check in here... I had a PD for my school's area today, and it drained me even more than 29 six and seven year olds in the last month of school do!

Anyways, I just wanted to let you all know of a great collaborative blog that I'm so excited to be participating in...

There's tons of great ideas, freebies, and more. Check it out by clicking on the button above!

Happy Tuesday!

TpT is throwing a big Teacher Appreciation Sale!

Stop by and get 28% off my store, today and tomorrow only!

(Click the cute image from Graphics from the Pond below!)

Five For Friday... On a Saturday, and May Currently!

So, I've been meaning to link up for Five for Friday for for.ev.er! But of course, time seems to slip away, and on Friday nights, after getting the kids to bed, this happens:

I know I can't be the only one this happens to. Right? RIGHT???

So, I'm a day late, but here goes!

1. We have FINALLY started getting some warm weather! First it was cold, then rainy, and finally this week, we hit the 70s!

We enjoyed a little time at the park. They both look so big in this picture!

2. We finished up our plant unit this week. This is the awesome work of one of my kiddos. (Check out that handwriting!)

If you're interested in this craftivity and the other experiments, reading responses, and other goodies from my unit, check it out by clicking below:

3. This week marked the beginning of our end of year testing. What?! We go until June 20 (gulp!) but we started testing our kids with BAS already.

Which, of course, necessitates lots and lots of this:

(Iced, french vanilla, cream and sugar... Yum...) 

And maybe this is a weird thing to notice, but on the cups in the ads, there's always like the flavor above the "coffee" (like where "iced" is on this cup), but that's never what it has at the store... Hmm...

4. I posted my Friday Folder comment sheets a few days ago, and came back to tell you a little more about them. First of all, a sweet reader notified me of a typo on the Spanish version, so I fixed it up and it's available to redownload on TpT.

 (Click the image above to download for FREE)

I was asked about how I used this form, so hopefully I can give a couple helpful hints!

For several years, I've used the communication folders from Nicky's Folders. They are awesome... I've used the same ones for about the past three years and I'll definitely be able to use them again next year. (Plus they're only about $1 a piece... Totally worth it.) They have a view pocket on the front, like a lot of binders do, and I slip the sheet inside. I print them on cardstock - it's easier to slide in and out that way.

I fill out the date, behavior and work habit codes, and make notes on them about any tests, things to work on at home, etc. Then, I fill the inside, which comes with printed labels on each pocket:

Any work that needs signed goes on the left, and other work to keep at home goes on the right.

My students bring the folders home on Fridays and back on Mondays, and it works like a charm!

5. Finally, I gotta brag on my own kiddos a bit... Check out my daughter's drawing (she'll be 3 in August):

(That's a face with hair, eyes, a circle nose, a smile - which is hard to see - and the straight line up is a tongue! Plus an A in the corner for Avery.)

And as an added bonus, in being even later than usual even for me, here's my May Currently!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and Oh' Boy Fourth Grade!

Friday Folders Made Easy - Free Download!

This week, I printed out my last Friday folder cover sheets of the year (sniff sniff). I've used Friday folders for the past few years and LOVE how it helps improve communication with parents while minimizing the random graded papers in kids' backpacks. I used to have these really intricate behavior and classwork forms and comments for each student. I typically run about 30 kids a year, which meant slaving away over those forms each Thursday night.

The form I used this year has been the easiest yet (I found something similar on Pinterest and modified it to fit my students, although I can't find the original post to save my life!).

I have many Spanish-speaking families, so I use a bilingual version, but one in English is available in the same download.

Just click the picture above to get this form FREE!

Also, I hit over 300 followers on TeachersPayTeachers and I'm ALMOST at 150 here... Maybe it's about time for a celebration? Check back soon!

Have a great start to your week!