Classroom Library

I have battled with how to set up my classroom library for a year!  I was very fortunate to have my grandmother volunteer in my classroom last year.  She tackled the job of leveling all the books that I purchased.  I can hear her groaning now at the mention of new books.  She even leveled the books that were already in my classroom (not exactly what I needed but hey they were books so we left them).  In February, I had an issue in my classroom that I never would have expected.  A couple students were stealing books.  Now, I am not talking about 1 or 2 books.  One child was caught with almost two dozen books in her backpack!  The other child had nearly as many.  I was baffled.  I had no idea what to do.  I took a closer look at my classroom library and realized that it had been going on for quite some time because there were A TON of books missing.  I already wrote my name on the inside cover, but needed to come up with a better system.  In the meantime, I had to put all of my books away and just leave the school’s books on the shelf.  I couldn’t risk losing anymore.  I don’t even want to think about how much I spent on books this year.  I know it was outrageous and I’m good about finding every possible bargain that I can find.  I sat everyone down and we had a class meeting about what had occurred and why they wouldn’t be able to use my books for a while.  Most of the class was very upset that others would take things that didn’t belong to them (I had some really good kids!).  They asked if they could start using them again if the other books were brought back.  I was hesitant but knew I had to come up with a system.  I told them that I would think about it and let them know what would happen.  The other books never came back, so I didn’t have to come up with a quick solution.  

It took me a while, but I had finally figured out what to do.  I ordered a pocket chart for a book checkout system.  Each student had their own pocket where they would place the card that came out of the book they chose.  The books from my personal library would only be available for checkout from me.  The kids couldn’t walk up and just grab one.  They had to ask, have it approved, and bring it back to me when they were done.  This system worked great!  It is just a ton of work…

In order to use this system, I had to put pockets in all of my books, create cards to go in those pockets with the title, author, AR level, quiz number, and point value.  I brought all of my personal books home over spring break since they were just sitting behind my desk and under my desk and got to work.  It took many, many hours to get the books cataloged.  I wanted it perfect and to run smoothly once I had it in place.  Wouldn’t you know that vacation went to fast and I ran out of time to finish it all.  

Now let’s talk about these pockets that I was putting in every book.  Remember back when we were all kids and we had to take the card out of the back of the book and give it to the librarian to stamp?  These are the same type of pockets that held that card we had to get stamped.  I thought “oh these won’t be that expensive.”  Yeah right.  They are ridiculous.  They are at least $7 for 50 cards.  Remember, I said I had a lot of books.  The count was well over 500 then.  Purchasing pockets was just not an option, so I made my own.  I’m pretty crafty and love to scrapbook.  I’ve seen envelopes made before, so I figured it couldn’t be that hard to make a pocket.  Sure enough, it was super easy.  I got a template made and used some of my scrapbooking cardstock paper.  I traced some and went to Sunday dinner at my grandparent’s house.  I brought everything with me knowing that I could enlist some help while I was there.  My grandma started cutting while I traced and then assembled.  I was thrilled how they turned out.  They are big enough to hold an index card and fit in the back of practically every book.  Now not all glue is created equal.  There are some that did not work out as well as others.  I found Zig Memory System 2 Way Glue at Hobby Lobby (used my 40% off coupon) and it was only like $3.  It holds so well!! 

My system still wasn’t perfect but I brought a big chunk of my books back to my classroom and allowed students to check out books.  The end of the year came and of course more new books arrived (I can’t resist a good deal from Scholastic or even Costco).  I packed up all my books again and brought them home.  I still needed to perfect my system.

I started to finish the project I began during spring break this last week.  Mother Nature has been rather mean to us here with her nasty thunderstorms, so I figured why not tackle it while we were stuck inside.  I have learned a few things.  1- I have a ton of books!  2- I need to learn to just say no to a book sale.  3- I can only listen to the G.I Joe and Transformer movies play so many times before it drives me crazy!  4- IKEA is a dangerous place for a teacher who needs to get organized.  

As you can see, I am almost organized.  :)

I’ll have to create some labels to go with these baskets.  I’m excited that my library will be running smoothly at the beginning of the year.  Books will be easier to find and students will be more accountable.  

How is your classroom organized?  Do you feel that you have a good system in place or are you still trying to perfect it too?

Jessica