My classroom library is the part of my classroom I am most proud of! It has been a work in progress for the past 18 years. I am sure I have thousands of books... I am not really sure of a total number (or amount of money spent!) over that time.
My books (most of which came from Scholastic Book Clubs and many, many DonorsChoose.org projects over the years), are sorted by genre. Each genre is in a different colored tub/bin/basket from Really Good Stuff.
Here are the latest photos of my classroom library. Little changes make big differences! Keep reading to see what's new since my last post!
I also added a LOT of new Biography books, thanks to Donorschoose.org! This section has quadrupled in size in the past year or so!
Here are all of my Informational/Non-fiction books (green).
The biggest change I recently made is to organize my Fiction sections horizontally across the shelves instead of in vertical clusters. Before, all of the Fantasy (blue), Realistic Fiction (purple), Mystery (pink), Science Fiction (orange), Historical Fiction (brown), and Traditional Literature (red) books were clustered vertically on top of each other. Students weren't looking all the way down the shelves for all of the choices. Now, to look for each genre, they have to look across all of the shelves. Not sure if I am making sense, but it HAS made a difference. Kids are noticing different books that have been there the whole time!
For example, this is what the Fantasy section looked like before:
Here is what it (and the rest of the Fiction books) looks like now (with each color stretching across instead of up and down, and some room for new additions):
The newest sections of my classroom library are books by popular authors and a section just for graphic novels. This picture was taken before I finished labelling them, but the author bins and books have white dot labels.
And the graphic novels have bright/light blue bins and labels.
I also added a LOT of new Biography books, thanks to Donorschoose.org! This section has quadrupled in size in the past year or so!
Here are all of my Informational/Non-fiction books (green).
The biggest change I recently made is to organize my Fiction sections horizontally across the shelves instead of in vertical clusters. Before, all of the Fantasy (blue), Realistic Fiction (purple), Mystery (pink), Science Fiction (orange), Historical Fiction (brown), and Traditional Literature (red) books were clustered vertically on top of each other. Students weren't looking all the way down the shelves for all of the choices. Now, to look for each genre, they have to look across all of the shelves. Not sure if I am making sense, but it HAS made a difference. Kids are noticing different books that have been there the whole time!
For example, this is what the Fantasy section looked like before:
Here is what it (and the rest of the Fiction books) looks like now (with each color stretching across instead of up and down, and some room for new additions):
All of my bins are labeled with these labels I found on TeachersPayTeachers. This set had ALMOST everything I needed. (No set could possibly cover my entire ridiculous classroom library, but this comes close.) Each bin has a colored dot with a number (the color matches the bin color) and all of the books have the same colored dot/number which makes them easy for my students to put away.
My students each have their own book box. They trade their books every Monday. They are supposed to pick one from each genre (color) every week, to encourage them to read a variety of different kinds of books.
I hope this helps you organize your own classroom library! Please comment down below with your questions or suggestions!
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