Classroom Library

I attended several professional development workshops and read several books over the summer and heard about the importance of having a well organized classroom library. My library has always been organized, but it has always been by level; either according to AR level or by Fountas and Pinnell guided reading level. But, after all the pd I received this summer, I knew I needed to do more.

Therefore, my goal when heading to school on Wednesday was to completely reorganize all if my books. I was kidding myself because I thought I would be able to finish the whole project in a few hours.

Here are a couple of before pictures. I obviously had a lot of work to do.

After sorting through my books, I came up with the following categories:

* Genres - general fiction, realistic fiction, historical fiction, folktales, fairy tales, legends, tall tales, poetry, biographies, mysteries, science content, social studies content, math content
* Author studies
* Novel sets
* Leveled Library

Here is the final product. (I included a lot of pictures.)

Entire library

Novel Sets

Content Area books - science, social studies, math

Leveled Library

Genres and Author Studies

After three days of laboring on this project, sitting in meetings, and helping in other classrooms, my classroom library is finally finished.... Well not really, every classroom is getting more books next week. I'm not sure where I will put them.

UPDATE!!
Here are two updated pictures of my classroom library. Here is what I added:
* Stuffed animals - I wanted to make the library more welcoming. My scholars will be allowed to take one to read with during free reading time.
* Clear pockets for book check out - my scholars will write the title and location of the books they check out on an index card and stick them in the pockets. I still need to place their student number on the chart pockets.
* Tub numbers - I gave each tub/shelf a number. When the students check out the books they will write down that number so they know where to return the books.

I am so proud of my library. I'm excited to see my scholars use this library. How is your classroom library organized?

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