A love of reading is the great gift we can give students. As a 1st grade teacher and a former 5th grade teacher, fostering a community of readers consumes/consumed much of my time and energy…and it should! Reading opens doors, it expands worlds, and it connects us to the rest of the world. Research repeatedly says the more time students spend reading the better readers they will become. We, as teachers, cannot assume that students are reading at home. We must provide reading time within our daily schedule and that means we need awesome classroom libraries that tell students – “I love reading, and you should too.” Teaching is really expensive and classroom libraries are even more expensive. Although I love hitting up Good Will, thrift stores, and yard sales as much as any other teacher, my go-to for building my classroom library is always Scholastic Reading Club.
Why Scholastic?
Last March I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit Scholastic and my love for all things Scholastic became even greater. You never truly know if a company is actually all about teachers until you meet them. Spending two days at their offices, Scholastic speaks our teacher language. They listened to our ideas, concerns, our book-ordering process. They trusted us. They asked questions about our lives as teachers. Leaving New York, I felt valued and important. Although I had always used Scholastic, I left knowing that the individuals and people behind Reading Club are all about creating a culture of reading in classrooms and streamlining the process for busy teachers. I am completely comfortable supporting them in the classroom and telling families – “If you are looking for affordable, high-interest books, choose Scholastic.”
Organizing it All
I do consider myself a Scholastic Ninja. I LOVE Scholastic, I love books, and I love snagging brand new books for our classroom. There are many ‘parts’ to a book order so I keep a designated drawers in my 10-drawer rolling cart for all things Scholastic. Here is where you will find all those Scholastic Catalogs (I only keep the ones I know I will be sending home), as well as, my Scholastic organization folder.
This is the folder I received my 1st year of teacher when I first started using Scholastic. I also keep it in my Scholastic Drawer, and it’s where I store all of my Scholastic paperwork.
On the left side of the folder, I keep any free-book coupons (from back-ordered items), bonus points, and birthday coupons. I like to designate a spot for these, so I make sure to use them. It’s too easy for them to become lost, and I hate losing-out on free books! On the right side of the folder, I keep all of the order-management materials – any paper orders students bring in, my mail-in order envelope (I put orders directly here so I don’t have to guess where they are), online order-code labels (which Scholastic provided this year!!! and you can always print some from your online Teacher’s Desk), and extra reminder bracelets.
Preparing for the Order
I know many classrooms set goals for book orders and really ‘push’ ordering books. While I *totally* understand/respect that option, that is really not my style. I am not a salesperson, and I don’t want my families to feel pressured to purchase books (we have two amazing public libraries in my town). With that said, I have full confidence in Scholastic and want to share that confidence with families.
When I assemble book orders, I combined 2 catalogs and attached a note about the order. For 1st grade, I send home the 1st grade catalog, as well as, the general K-2 catalog. When the specialized math/science/holiday catalogs come out, I love including those instead of the general K-2 catalog. Note – I never send home more than 2 catalogs because I don’t want to overwhelm families.
I attach a note to orders because it provides a ‘context’ for ordering, and it a great way to briefly explain the ordering process. Not every teacher in our school uses Book Orders, so I want to make it an easy process for families (even if they are new to Reading Club). If you’re interested in this editable note, feel free to click here. You can also snag letters about Reading Club on your Scholastic Teacher Desk.
At the end of the day, I take 10 minutes after reflection (right before dismissal) to introduce the catalogs to students. My friends LOVE searching for their favorites books or books we’ve read together in class.
Connecting and Supporting Families
Throughout the week, students bring in their orders and families place them online (this is always preferable). I do send home a Remind Text, as well as, an email highlighting choices that are just-right for most of my friends. In August, I do lots of the leveled book sets and in March I start highlighting beginning-chapter book sets. Below is the draft of the sample email I will send to families about book recommendations. (Click here to snag an editable copy.)
The day before an order is ‘due’ I send students home in Book Order Bracelets. Again, I am not trying to ‘push’ books, but I want to make sure to get ALL the orders are in before I order. It always makes my heart SO sad when I place an order and 12 hours later another order comes in. When this happens, our class still gets the bonus points but we might have missed out on a ‘Monthly Benchmark’. You can snag these editable bracelets here.
Ordering Online – Simply!
Now – the ordering of the books! Scholastic online-ordering has really been streamlined over the last year and they’ve made lots of changes that work in our favor. Now, you can place online orders by students. So for paper orders that you have received, you can type in a student’s name and the book they ordered (see below). Then, when the books arrive, that student’s name and order shows up on your packing slip. This means, I don’t have to keep a list of which students ordered and what they ordered – score!
If you’re looking to make the most of coupons and bonus points, always make sure to look for those $1 books. In each Reading Club catalog (Firefly through TAB), there is a $1 book each month. If you type $1 into the search bar, they should pull up. These books are perfect for birthday books or gifts. Typically, I gift students 1 book a quarter. It helps them build their personal libraries and makes sure every students walks away with a book throughout our book orders.
Maximizing Your Money and Bonus Points
The $1 books are only 50 bonus points, so for 300 points you can snag a set for Book Clubs or Guided Reading! Since our school doesn’t have a book room, I am building my own Guided-Reading Book Room Shelf. If the books are Levels A – M, I snag 6 copies. REAL books are always SO much better than phonics readers or the basal! On the door to the cabinet, I have a list of Guided Reading Levels and the books that I have that fit that guided-reading level. It makes it simple to grab the levels I need.
Another way to maximize your money is to snag a set of Birthday Coupons. In these set of coupons, you get 32 $5 coupons for $34. Typically I will use 22 of the coupons for Winter-Break gifts (i.e. Christmas gifts), and then use the remaining coupons for students who normally doesn’t place a book order, giving them a chance to pick a book for our class. I also pick up some $5 book packs with the coupons (meaning you snag several books for $5)! (Note – you can’t use Bonus Points on these, but they are still completely worth the $34. I mean, in return you receive no less than $160 in books!)
About Your Bonus Points
Once you’ve finally finalized your cart, you are ready to Review Your Order. Here you see what points your purchase has earned and can enter your coupons! You can always find the ordering tiers in the Teacher Pages of the physical catalogs or online at your “Teacher’s Desk”. Here is the September Snapshot.
My first order hit $300, so I did earn the 10,000 bonus points. FRIENDS, ALWAYS HIT $300 IN SEPTEMBER. This month, I did have to fill the gap between my class orders and the $300 but it’s completely worth it! #noregrets #nevertoomanybooks
By hitting the $300 benchmark, our classroom earns 10,000 bonus points, 10 free books (a pre-picked book back from Scholastic), 2 free book-coupons in October, 1,000 extra bonus points for being a Gold Apple Teacher, and $30 in “Spend Right Now” cash. Realistically, this means we’ll welcome at least 250 ‘FREE’ books to our classroom in the coming months! (Also, for the first time ever, I’m planning on ordering from the Teacher Catalog. They have this set of library chairs that is calling my name!)
Now, as I am ordering, I always keep a list of “wish list books” as a sticky on my computer. These are books that my students have asked for but I don’t want to personally purchase or use Bonus Points on them (because they are kind of pricey or are TV-show based and will probably only be popular for a little while). Scholastic has started a “Spend Right Now” program where you earn dollars to spend immediately with your purchase. I keep these “Wishlist” items for that ‘Spend Right Now’ money! (My wishlist for this order included Lego City, Minions, Minecraft, etc.)
THE BOOKS ARE HERE
A week after ordering, our books arrive and it’s THE happiest day! I always snag the specific book orders of students before my friends arrive and put their book in their cubbies. I do this so the books we open together are everyone’s books, rather than the focus being on the friends who were able to order. The Haves vs. Have/Choose Nots is not something I want to foster.
Then, I place the box right in the middle of our floor. This is what I call Teacher Power. As students walk in for the morning, I smile and say, “Eyes Only” #ohmygoodness #talkaboutpainful Then, we wait. We continue with our normal routine as friends circle the box, sneak looks out of the corner of their eyes, and I causally keep making references/tripping over the box. #oops #clumsyteacher #paynoattentiontome
When I think we absolutely can’t wait ANY longer, I call my friends to the carpet and everyone sits on a letter. This creates a perfect carpet-circle, and we are ready to see all the new books for our classroom library.
We go around the room and each friend pulls out a book. As students look in the box, their eyes are HUGE and their friends giggle. Below you will see a month where I used LOTS of our bonus points. We sit around looking at the books, talking about if we know the characters, if they are nonfiction/fiction books, etc.
After the dramatics have ensued and my friends are ‘hooked’, it’s finally reading time! For now, the books stay on the carpet and friends move to their favorite reading spots around the room by themselves or with a friend. My favorite reading spot is on the corner of the fuzzy carpet with a few friends. This reading time is fairly unregulated. I love seeing the excitement of new books ‘infect’ my friends (especially at the beginning of the year) so if partner reading turns into 5-friends-reading, let it be. Right then, in that moment – it’s all cool. (10 points for you if you recognized the Pete the Cat reference!)
Saying Thank-You
After each book order arrives, make sure to take a picture of the new, free books you welcomed into your classroom. From guided reading sets to book-bin books, families love to see what is being added to our classrooms because of their orders. It’s so important to thank families for investing in your classroom and their child. Plus, it encourages future orders! This is a screen shot of a quick Remind Text I sent to families after our March Book Order Arrived.
My biggest ‘hint’ or ‘trick’ or ‘tip’ is to create a community of readers. Foster a ridiculous love for reading and books and authors. Give your friends LOTS of time to read (even when it’s hard to find time in your schedule) and show your students how much you love reading. That is how I make the most of Scholastic and maximize my orders.
What do you do to make Scholastic Book Orders work for your classroom? Do you have any tips or tricks for managing it or encouraging orders? I’d love to hear your ideas! I am submitting my first order of the year Wednesday morning, and I can hardly wait to indoctrinate another group of readers about the goodness of book orders!
Suddenly I am excited about Scholastic book orders. Thank you for this post!
I LOVE this post! I have ordered from Scholastic for years, and I hardly ever purchase books from anywhere else. I am new to parent orders though. In the school I taught at for 13 years, I would send home the orders every month, but with it being an extremely low income school, I think I had maybe a handful of students over the years purchase the $1 book. I would always spend a ton of my own money, and the only bonus points I earned were from my own spending 😉 I am now at a school where the parents are more interested in purchasing books. I'm definitely going to use your tips. I'm so bummed that I already make my September order though, so I missed out on all of those benefits from reaching $300 🙁
We get a lot of magazines, and not all of the teachers use them, so I use the extras for a math center. The students make a list of all of the books that they are interested in, then order them from most expensive to least expensive. Once they have their list, they have to decide what they would buy if they only had $20 to spend. This way they know what books they want, but are prepared to give some up if there isn't a lot of money to spend. Next month I'm adding a persuasive writing element to it- how do you persuade your family to buy you the books you want.
Switching grades from 5th to 1st, Scholastic has been a tremendous help to me, too! I definitely don't make the top tier of spending every month, but always try to in September because the rewards are so high. Thanks so much for stopping by! 🙂
Hi Marcy! When I taught 5th grade, maximizing book orders was all about making it a social experience. Students loved the chance to make "wish-lists" for our classroom library, as well as, encourage their friends to check out new books. When we welcomed new books, I always held Book Raffles which were a fun (and more equitable) way to distribute books! http://thebrownbagteacher.blogspot.com/2014/03/book-raffles.html
Hi Kortnee! I do submit their order online but mail-in their check. Scholastic trusts teachers to send-in the money, so you don't have to cover the cost with your own debit card – which is wonderful!
Last year as a first year teacher Scholastic was HUGE in building my first library with books the kids and I loved. I never quite made it to the same level as you but this year I am hopefully! Thanks for the freebies to help communicate with parents!!
Kayla
The Chalkboard Garden
A fun post. Thanks. To tempt my sixth graders, I read aloud some of the titles from the book order after I've handed them out. This sparks interest and gets kiddos to look more closely at the order. I've never hit the $300.00 mark. As a middle school teacher, I've found it difficult to get that high. I have certainly earned my share of bouns points and have "purchased" some great items from the catalog. Sept. is usually the month with the best rewards for ordering, but keep your eyes posted for coupons and monthly bonus point rewards. When my order arrives, I show each book I was able to get for the classroom. I let the class know they will be ready for checking out within a day. There's always a run on our new classroom library books from Scholastic. I think I get more excited than the students when the box arrives!
So when your students give you orders, you do it all online? Do you send their cash or pay with a card?
So when your students give you orders, you do it all online? Do you send their cash or pay with a card?
This is a great post! Thanks for sharing all of that great info! I didn't know about the birthday coupons, so I am super excited about those!!
Yay, Brenna!! I'm so excited for your classroom, too. The $300 mark is the sweet spot in terms of points. I am placing my order on Wednesday morning and can hardly wait – eek! 🙂
Great suggestions – thank you! I appreciate the freebies too. I am looking forward to sending my first order home this week.
I just put my computer away for the night and had to get back on because I had to check and see which books I'll want to buy! I LOVE Scholastic, but I never knew hitting the $300 mark would benefit us SO much! I THANK YOU! (Even if my wallet doesn't) 😉 I am dying to place my September order!
Hi Lori! I just double-checked the links and they seem to be working now. Will you please re-try? Thank you! 🙂
Great tips! But I couldn't download the editable reminder bracelet:(