BTS Tips Part 1: Library Setup

Back To School Tips 2017
Organizing  Your Classroom Library 

The cornerstone to any upper elementary literacy teacher's classroom is their library.  It should be the focal point of the whole room and contain a diverse range of books and showcase various genres from which students can select a book.  The library is a way to advertise or sell reading to your students.  So, now what!
You have all theses amazing books and students are drooling all over them. BUT...you need a well developed system to help organize and maintain your library. Well, we have developed and maybe borrowed a few tips to make yours run smooth all year long.  

First, we organize our books by genre and reading levels. We recently designed these super cute and trendy classroom library labels to help. Providing reading levels for all your books helps students make wise books decisions.  A great FREE resource to help you get started is Book Wizard App from Scholastic!   This app contains over 50,000 book titles.  You can easily scan the book's bar code or enter book's title to get the book's reading level.  Also, Book Wizard App from Scholastic can create a an inventory list of all the books in your library.  Last, we label all our books in our library with the wonderful Avery Fluorescent Labels.  Just in case the book gets misplaced.

You can click HERE to access the library genre labels in our Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Next, you need a good system for check out and in.  We wish we  knew how many books we have lost over the years.  We recently read a blog post by Soaring Through Second about her classroom library.  She uses a Google form with her students.  She requires her students to check out and in books by using the form and that creates a electronic record for her in a snap.  She has a great tutorial video if you are not familiar with Google forms.

Finally, how to keep your library neat, tidy and organized.  We recently saw an Instagram post from the texasteacher14.  She created a return box that her students use to turn in books after checking them in.  That way later you or a qualified student can re-shelve the books and save "this is not the right place" sanity.

We hope that these tips will help you run a successful library in your classroom.  Feel free to share your classroom library tips with us! Next blog post organizing your mentor texts and read alouds.