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!

TGISB (Thank God It's Spring Break!)... Plus a Quick Freebie

Today was the first official day of spring break.

It. Was. Glorious.

It certainly helped that I had the house (well, condo) cleaned professionally. That is a much-deserved little luxury, right?

Well, my big project is overhauling my plant unit this break, since we're going right into it as soon as spring break is over.

But in the meantime, I'm sharing this little freebie:

(Click either one to go to Google Drive for the download)

I love me some Scholastic book orders. Inexpensive books, titles the kids like, BONUS POINTS... What's NOT to love? Well, as much as I love 'em, paperback books with stapled bindings don't hold up too well with 29 little firsties. So rather than having my students come up to me at inopportune times ("Look! Look! A page fell out!"), I'm going to be laminating and slapping that sign onto one of our large, clear book bins and placing it right near the library. The little slips will be copied and placed in a little basket next to the bin. Your book has something wrong with it? Take a note, fill it out, and stick it like a bookmark into the book, then place the book in the Book Hospital box. I can get the book back to the right kiddo, I know what's wrong, and I can confer and meet with groups in peace.

Enjoy!

Involving Parents in Home Reading

Several years ago, I found a wonderful post on Jessica Meacham's site about bags students could take home with books and other materials for sharing with families. I teach in a high-poverty area, and many of my students do not have books at home to share with their parents, siblings, and other relatives. Each kiddo takes home a book every night, but I wanted something a little extra that was a) motivating and that b) put a lot of books in my students' hands. This was the beginning of our literature bag program.

Since each pack includes many books (sometimes as many as seven or eight), my students have to get a parent's permission to check them out. In the four years I've used these, I've only had one pouch and one book lost! You can grab my permission slip (in English and Spanish) HERE.

After a couple months of school, I introduce my students to literature bags, which I display in an awesome book organizer I got through a DonorsChoose.org grant from Lakeshore.

Each one of my literature bags is in a School-to-Home Organizer from Lakeshore. (Again, I got these through a grant... Love DonorsChoose!)

I created cards to go into each School-to-Home Organizer, and numbered the pouches. Some of my bags have books that are in Spanish, and I've noted that with star stickers so my students know which ones have bilingual texts in them.

The pouch has two sides... One contains the books (which you can see when the organizer is closed), and the other contains the contents card and a thin composition book.

The contents card has a brief note to parents with a list of titles included in the pouch, so parents can check the contents before returning it to school. There are also a couple of writing prompts and suggested activities (which are basically the same for each literature pack... I also have math packs with similar cards and other ideas). Parents and students can write in the composition book and/or draw a picture. I don't require this (or participation in the literature bag program as a whole), but almost all of my kids and their parents participate.

These are just a few of the books in the Ocean Life pack. You'll see each is labeled with the literature bag number as well as my name and school.

My students L-O-V-E these packs, parents always have positive feedback about them, and best of all, it gets families reading together. What's not to love about that?!

FREE Classroom library bin labels

Just a quick post to share my classroom library bin labels!

Last year I changed my book baskets to the large, clear bins from School Specialty (although Lakeshore and other stores carry similar ones), to better show the covers of some of my larger picture books. Therefore, I redid my labels to the ones you see in this post.

I printed and glued each label to black cardstock, then attached a colored sticker (I buy mine from Demco.com, which is a library supply store) with a number for each bin to the right side of the label. All the books that belong in that basket have the matching color/number sticker in the top corner. (I'll update this post later once I'm back in my classroom and can take some pictures of my book bins and books!) Fiction books have yellow stickers, series/author books have green stickers, nonfiction books have blue stickers, and chapter books have pink stickers. You can see my library organization below (I have this sign posted in the classroom library area):

Click {HERE} to download my library organization list.

My library bin labels are in two downloads due to size:

Click to download:
Library Book Bin Labels Set 1
Library Book Bin Labels Set 2

Enjoy!