Without hesitation, my library is the most important part of our classroom. In 5th grade, my students never had a designated library time, so many times my classroom library was the only one my 90 5th grade friends would see. Additionally, I want students leaving my classroom knowing that reading is amazing and there is always a book for them!
Over the past year, it is very reasonable to assume I added close to 1,000 books to our collection. We keep a running “Books We NEED for Our Library” list, use Scholastic Points like it’s our job, and always have a live Donor’s Choose project for more books. The most important factor in acquiring books for our library? My kids are always involved. They track our Scholastic points, make book-buying priority lists, and help me raffle the books when they arrive. Once the kids arrive in August, it’s no longer my library but our library.
We have 3 sets of bookshelves for our books. The first bookshelf found under our Genre bulletin board holds our fiction books organized by topic/genre using these labels. Since most books fit in more than one category, after a student finishes a book, he or she places the book in the category they felt best fit the book best. Overall, this system worked very well (plus, the idea of actually marking my books makes me ill). As a safeguard, the “Protector of Books” (a classroom job) looked at the books every afternoon to make sure they were in their just-right homes.
The bulletin
board above the bookcase showcases genre posters that we reviewed the first week of school and referred to throughout the year as we read together and recommended books to one another. The posters acted as a visual reminder to students about the different categories of the books they should be reading throughout the year (based on The Book Whisperer), working our way to 40 books by May. On the far right you see running list of ‘Words to Know’ that we incorporated in our units. Through the year, I switched out the words so students had a “game plan” of what was to come!
Adjacent to our fiction shelf, we have our nonfiction shelve which gets a work-out. Our nonfiction books were a hit this year – 10 True Tales Books were a hit in September/October, war books in December, and books about the Holocaust in April! (This was a picture of the shelf in August, and it definitely did not look full. By May, we had added 7 more containers of books! I never took a picture of it before the end of the year – oops – but have a few pictures that give you the general gist of the shelf.
Also, you might notice
writing on the side of my filing cabinet! No, I did not defile school property,
but I did cover the side in black butcher paper and purchased a silver sharpie and added a magnet to the cap.
This was our classroom’s “Favorite Book Quotes” area. As students enjoyed their books, they searched for the ‘just perfect’ quote to include on
the board. After finishing The One and Only Ivan, I added this thought.
Since my 5th
graders do not go to library as a part of their specials schedule, it is SO important
that my library appeals to all of my readers. So, I wanted to make sure I have
different books on display. I picked up a magazine display from Staples, and
then, two plate holders from Hobby Lobby! The two picture frames that you see
were one of my spray paint projects a few weeks ago. We also use student-written book blurbs and monthly book displays to add interest to our reading area!
Directly across from our nonfiction shelves (on the opposite wall), we have our books-in-a-series shelves I found it did not work putting these books on the non-fiction/fiction shelves because they would get separated from one another and they were difficult to find. We added them to shelves I purchased at Target and they were organized by the author’s last name. (Note – after our last Donor’s Choose project of graphic novel series was funded, I had to move my teacher binders and replace them with books! :))
Lastly, I place my REALLY low books (Horrible Harry, Clementine Nancy Drew Clue Crew, Magic School Bus chapter books) in the bottom drawer of my black file cabinet. From there, I added containers to the bottom shelves of my fiction and nonfiction shelves for students to pick from. My students who read at grade-level or above never really paid attention to these books (although they were welcome to pick them up for a quick, fun read), but my below-grade level readers were able to pick books from the shelves just like everyone else!
And when you put it
altogether you get a nice little reading space. I would have loved to add a chair and other ‘warm
fuzzy’ items, but with limited space that was not in the cards this
year. Although there are no ‘extras’ my students have a well organized and appealing library
from which to choose! Hopefully, this will begin our adventure of reading 40 books by May!
For all my intermediate friends, you can find the labels I used here. Also, a sweet friend
requested a set of labels for Primary Land, so I whipped these out. I took out
the cursive ‘nonfiction’ ‘fiction’ section of each label and added more topics/categories.
There are over 55 labels in this pack, and I am always happy to edit/add labels
if you need them!
So, friends, how do you organize your classroom library? Work works for you or what does your school expect? I always love looking at pictures of classroom libraries, so please do share! 🙂
Your separate area for the books in a series is brilliant! Thanks for sharing your library organization with us.
Love how you organized your library, and your labels are adorable! I am also envious of all the shelving you have!
This is amazing! You have motivated me to make some changes to my classroom library! Do you have a master list of the words you used under "Words to Know"? Thanks for sharing your ideas! [email protected]
Hi Amy! I have it in a PowerPoint and am a day or two away from posting it on TPT. I'll send it your way when I'm finished. 🙂
That sounds great! Thank you 🙂
I love your library! It's fantastic! Do you mind me asking what did you use for the actual "tubs"? The look like Sterlite, but wanted to know for sure. 🙂
Hi Agatha! I use the Bella tubs from Lowes. They are $1.27. They're a little bigger than the Dollar Tree clear tubs and are completely clear -no haze! 🙂
I have been looking for a new way to organize my library. I have the opportunity to redo it all now, so I think I shall take a page from you book {no pun intended} ; ) when I put it all back together again in August. Thanks for sharing your ideas!
I'm SO impressed that you were able to acquire and sort all those books in ONE YEAR! Nice job!!
Your classroom library is wonderful! I understand your space issues… :0) My Reading in the Wild text just came in the mail yesterday, and I am excited to get started reading…
Smiles, Sarah
Catherine you library looks great! I like your idea about having the kids track scholastic points and so forth. Those scholastic points are like gold! Just like you those points and Donor's Choose have funded my classroom library. Lovin your genre posters, I have them on my wish list.
Your library looks great and WOW do you have a lot of books. 🙂 Hopefully your kiddos are really motivated to read when they see how much you care about it! Thanks for sharing!
I have definitely spent a lot of resources on books this year….good thing I'm not married and don't have kids-ha! 🙂
I love this!! I love your idea of putting paper over the filing cabinet and having the kids write their favorite quotes from their books!! What a fun idea!!
I love the word cloud/subway art genre posters! You should totally sell those in your TPT store…because I would buy them. 🙂 Also, where did you get your book tubs? Thanks for sharing such great pictures and telling us all about your library. I need to update mine for sure and yours serves as inspiration. being-ladylike.blogspot.com
Hi Carrie! The posters are in my store along with coordinating reading comprehension posters and classroom expectation posters. 🙂 The tubs are from Lowes. They are the Bella tubs that sell for $1.27. They are a little bigger than the Dollar Tree tubs and completely clear!!
I love the organization of your library. The genre posters and book bin labels are headed to my wishlist!
This is exactly what I needed to find at exactly this time. Thanks for sharing and please forgive me while I copy this layout for my library this year! 🙂
I have been thinking about my classroom library, so this was a timely post! Do you label your books at all (colored stickers or something like that)? I have my books separated by genre as well, but I am considering whether to label them (subtly) or not.
I love your classroom library! One question… how do you have your students check out/in your books?
You're classroom library is awesome! Where did you get your large black shelves?
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31 Responses
Your separate area for the books in a series is brilliant! Thanks for sharing your library organization with us.
Love how you organized your library, and your labels are adorable! I am also envious of all the shelving you have!
This is amazing! You have motivated me to make some changes to my classroom library! Do you have a master list of the words you used under "Words to Know"? Thanks for sharing your ideas! [email protected]
Hi Amy! I have it in a PowerPoint and am a day or two away from posting it on TPT. I'll send it your way when I'm finished. 🙂
That sounds great! Thank you 🙂
I love your library! It's fantastic! Do you mind me asking what did you use for the actual "tubs"? The look like Sterlite, but wanted to know for sure. 🙂
Hi Agatha! I use the Bella tubs from Lowes. They are $1.27. They're a little bigger than the Dollar Tree clear tubs and are completely clear -no haze! 🙂
I have been looking for a new way to organize my library. I have the opportunity to redo it all now, so I think I shall take a page from you book {no pun intended} ; ) when I put it all back together again in August. Thanks for sharing your ideas!
Ali
Teaching Powered by Caffeine
I'm SO impressed that you were able to acquire and sort all those books in ONE YEAR! Nice job!!
Your classroom library is wonderful! I understand your space issues… :0) My Reading in the Wild text just came in the mail yesterday, and I am excited to get started reading…
Smiles,
Sarah
Catherine you library looks great! I like your idea about having the kids track scholastic points and so forth. Those scholastic points are like gold! Just like you those points and Donor's Choose have funded my classroom library. Lovin your genre posters, I have them on my wish list.
Chelsea
Fifth Grade Wit and
Whimsy
Your library looks great and WOW do you have a lot of books. 🙂 Hopefully your kiddos are really motivated to read when they see how much you care about it! Thanks for sharing!
Cassie
Funky in Fourth
I have definitely spent a lot of resources on books this year….good thing I'm not married and don't have kids-ha! 🙂
I love this!! I love your idea of putting paper over the filing cabinet and having the kids write their favorite quotes from their books!! What a fun idea!!
Mrs. 3rd Grade
I love the word cloud/subway art genre posters! You should totally sell those in your TPT store…because I would buy them. 🙂 Also, where did you get your book tubs? Thanks for sharing such great pictures and telling us all about your library. I need to update mine for sure and yours serves as inspiration.
being-ladylike.blogspot.com
Hi Carrie! The posters are in my store along with coordinating reading comprehension posters and classroom expectation posters. 🙂 The tubs are from Lowes. They are the Bella tubs that sell for $1.27. They are a little bigger than the Dollar Tree tubs and completely clear!!
I love the organization of your library. The genre posters and book bin labels are headed to my wishlist!
Chelsea
Flip Floppin' Through…3rd Grade
This is exactly what I needed to find at exactly this time. Thanks for sharing and please forgive me while I copy this layout for my library this year! 🙂
I have been thinking about my classroom library, so this was a timely post! Do you label your books at all (colored stickers or something like that)? I have my books separated by genre as well, but I am considering whether to label them (subtly) or not.
I love your classroom library! One question… how do you have your students check out/in your books?
You're classroom library is awesome! Where did you get your large black shelves?