Organizing my Classroom Library

So I know that it's been a while since I posted. What can I say? Things have just started to slow down and get into routine.  I have LOTS of things I want to share about what I have been doing in my own classroom. I am loving first grade!

My mega project that I focus on during my weekends is growing my classroom library. I've been going to budget book places, resale stores, garage sales, etc. looking for books to fit my WIIIIIIDE range of readers in my classroom.

If you are trying to grow your classroom library I HIGHLY suggest heading over to Half Price Books and asking for a donation form.  When you fill out the form accompanied with a letter on your school letterhead telling what kind of books you need, they go through their overstocked and clearance books and hook you up.  They provided me with 4 HUGE boxes of books!
Thank you Half Price Books!

Now, I sorted through them and had to take out the ones that weren't appropriate for public school and then considered what my classroom needed About 60 books were a perfect fit for my class. All for FREE! :)   As the other books, I'm sharing with other teachers on my campus so they can build their libraries as well. 

As I was sorting through all the books, thoughts kept coming to my mind if I were to see a child looking at a book. I was thinking, I wanted to tell my kids something about a certain book, but I can't always be there when they are book shopping, so what could I do?

I came up with this idea- To put a sticker with me and a speech bubble saying what I would if a child picked up a book next to me.  I'm pretty stoked about it and might have made a few from my dog recommending some dog books.....

They say things like
- Can you make a text to text connection?
- I recommend this book because the experiments are really neat.
- I recommend this book because it was a favorite when I was a kid.
-This book is great for practicing your sight words.

 


I was really stoked about how I have organized my library so far, but I now realize that I didn't leave enough space for growing. So here's my library now. In the next few weeks bins will be replaced with some larger ones and some of my categories will become more specific. I'm pretty sure I'll change the shelving too. Stayed tune to see how it will look!