Finished Library

With the help of some amazing and beautiful girls, I was able to get the classroom library all labeled and organized. Let's take a peek!

All of the books are labeled by genre with a sticker on the inside cover. The label matches the genre label on each bucket. I don't know if you want to know exactly how I sorted, which genres I used, and the labels I made. If yes, just let me know, and I'll do it.

The reasons I used these buckets were that they were available, cheap (Dollar Tree), and thin. Do you see the wacky clothespins underneath the clock? (I should have taken a better picture. I was too tired!) I number my students, so each number on that chart has three clothespins. They can check out three books at a time from the library. They pick the book, put their clip on the bucket, and take the book back to their desk. When they are finished, they return it to the bucket, they get their clothespin (which having it attached to the bucket they got it from should help ensure it makes it back to the proper place), and browse for another selection. The green basket is the hospital for lost or broken books. My classroom librarian will then be able to sort books and help repair them.

I have books that do not live in the library because they are special in some way. Books that are frequently referenced, only put out for certain science or social studies themes, books we've made, books we have shared together during read aloud, those books go in these baskets. They are way too thick for clothespins.

So I labeled pieces of poster board, laminated them, and stuck them in the baskets.

Now the baskets are labeled, and the students can put their clothespins onto the poster board.

I got the clothespin idea from An O.C.D. Teacher, though her chart looks much nicer. The poster board idea was my own. I'm not saying other people haven't done it, but I haven't seen it anywhere, and it *may* be an original thought of my own. I say that because I might have seen it somewhere, stored it away, and my mind re-birthed it as my own thought. I do have original thoughts sometimes, though. I'd like to think this was one of those times.

Well, I haven't been posting because I was spending exhaustingly long days in my room. The reason I did so was because I didn't want to have to go in at all this week. I met my goal, and now I intend to relax at home, work on my WBT book study, read for fun, and watch silly movies. I took a ton of pictures, so I do plan on posting this week, too. Stay tuned!