Five for Friday--Classroom Library Edition

Thanks to Doodlebugs for the chance to link up once again--It's Five for Friday!

Since we have been busy back in our rooms--our classroom libraries have gotten a lot of needed attention--adding to, reorganizing, cleaning...  We thought we would take this opportunity to share our two different, yet equally as effective, classroom library systems.

Courtney's Classroom Library

I have been doing The Daily 5 in my classroom since 2007 after reading The Sisters' book in about 2 days. They stress that students need to read "good fit" books and learn how to pick these books out. I feel it is important to have a wide variety of books available for my students so that they learn how to pick out books that are not only at their level, but also are interesting to them. While reading The Daily 5, I noticed The Sisters put numbers on their books and then on the basket that contains those specific books.

I thought is was a genius idea and that summer took all my books home to number.  

 

Over the years, I have had to combine baskets of books because my library is just way too big, but now it is so organized and the kids can put books back in the correct baskets. 

Sarah's Classroom Library

In a previous post, I briefly talked about my classroom library system when sharing a rainbow key for the library...

Since books are color coded according to type, this works perfectly.  All baskets are simply labeled with an easy to read font that directly corresponds to the label on the back of each book.

This system works famously! The kids must read/match up the label on the book and find the corresponding basket label to reshelve a book.  The library stays incredibly organized, and the kids take pride in making sure books are in their places and easy for the next person to find. Here are some more pics. If you should see any dust bunnies or piles in these pics, please know they have had a happy home all summer, but they will soon be moving on... :0)

Chapter book series are coded yellow and are in a section with separate series labels. 

Favorite authors are kept on a shelf and are color coded pink.  I help students take these down when asked (no more room down low), and different authors are spotlighted throughout the year as well.

 

Clear View Organizers (Sarah)

I discovered these wonderful little containers earlier in the summer, but I just got around to filling them.  When I was walking the aisles at Menards, I discovered these handy-dandy little organizers--intended for storing nuts and bolts and such.  They are called VIEWTAINERS and come in different sizes.  I filled a larger one with pencil erasers and mini one with jumbo paperclips for the kids to access. They are easy to squeeze open (as you can see my mother-in-law doing with her arthritic hands)--just like those classic rubber coin purses from back in the day. The sticker comes off--just wanted to show you the brand labeling in case you want to pick up a couple for your classroom... :0)

 Monkey Joe's (Courtney) 

Because I go back next week, we have been trying to finish up our summer fun list. On Thursday this week we went to Monkey Joe's. For those of you that are not familiar with Monkey Joe's, it is a place kids can go and bounce their little hearts out. Our Monkey Joe's has about 9-10 different kinds of inflatables for kids to jump, hop, flip, and tire themselves out on. My little ladies loved it, and this little diva pictured below took a great nap after her fun day!

Destination: Registration!

Well, student registration was this week--another step closer to the beginning of the year! It was a pleasure, as always, to see the smiling faces of former students both small and BIG. Jeepers--those little buggers grow up fast! It's amazing to see former students come back as parnets to register their kids.  Quite the reality check to remind us of how long we have been at this... We are looking forward to meeting or new kids!

All the best to you for a wonderful weekend!