How to Manage Your Classroom Library

I love books.  Seriously, LOVE books...and if they are children's books, then I am a bit nutty. I might be a hoarder.  When it comes to books, it is all possible!

Over the ten plus years that I taught, I amassed a pretty large collection of books for my classroom library. So let's chat about how I managed the madness!

Here are a few pictures of how I organized my classroom library over several different years.

I had a very loose classroom management system for my library. Each of my students had a book box.  I reused these year to year.  Each box had a number on it that correlated to the student's classroom number. I ordered mine from Really Good Stuff and I highly recommend them.  They had GREAT customer service.  However, if price is an issue, Wal-Mart is selling similar sets of 4 boxes for about $10.

The student stored their book boxes on a large shelf in my classroom.  One year I purchased a shelf because there was not one available in the school.  Another year, I was able to snag a district  provided books shelf and they fit wonderfully!

I always set my classroom up into 4-5 table groups. Then, each table was assigned a day.  Table 1 was Monday, Table 2 was Tuesday and so on.  On each table's day, they were able to do special things like sit around the room on the cushions and beanbags during workshop time, always were called to line up first, and were able to "shop for books."

Students "shopped for books" after they finished morning work or first thing in the morning. I did NOT allow students to take my books home or out of the classroom without special permission.   This rule alone prevented kids from losing my books.  I did send home books, but I sent home printable books, so I wasn't as concerned if they got lost.  Books also had to be kept in the book box when they were not in use. Students were not allowed to keep books from my library in their desk or on the corner of their desk.

I also explicitly taught students how to care for books.  This video that mimics Mo Willems' pigeon books is ADORABLE!

Wouldn't it be a great way to engage students before discussing how to are for books!?!?

For the most part, my classroom library pretty much ran itself.  I would do random checks to make sure students were reading appropriately leveled books AFTER I taught the lessons by The Sisters about book choice. I DID NOT choose to level my books because I feel student choice it VERY important and can hugely impact kids' reading abilities. Instead, I organized my books by topic,genre, or author.

+

If you would like to read more about how I organized my library and want a step by step guide, check out this blog post!  I helped a friend organize her library and blogged all about our progress!

There are a million ways to manage your classroom library.  Some will be much more strict than I ever was, and that is okay, too! How do you manage your classroom library?

 If you would like more ideas from The Primary Peach, be sure to follow us on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook to catch all the freebies and ideas and more!

PIN FOR LATER:

Back to School Deals at Five Below!

Do you guys have a Five Below in your area?

It is like Dollar General, but a bit nicer, I think. It has several items- TONS of stock in the store.  Everything is $5 or less...hence the Five Below name.

In my experience, some of the items are REALLY good deals, just okay deals, or not a good deal at all.  Just because it is $5 or under doesn't make it a steal.

It is like a Toys R Us for my five year old.  It is seriously her favorite store, which makes me laugh.  We had a garage sale a few weeks ago and she made $3.  It was burning a hole in her pocket, so I told her I would take her to Five Below to spend it. While I was there, I decided to take photos of items that would be perfect in the classroom and then compare prices on Amazon to see if it was a steal, deal, or a miss.

I thought these would be fantastic headphones for a computer or listening to reading center!  Five dollars is a pretty good deal because they look MUCH more sturdy that the Dollar Tree ones!

I actually bought these for my girls!  The quality is great and the puzzles have large pieces!  They are a GREAT deal for only $5!!!

These were beautiful cards!  They could be used in a writing centers because of the photos on the cards.

There were several different categories!  These would be great to hole punch and put on a ring for students to look at!

I love pens.  I horde them.  I need to control myself!  These Ink Joy mini pens were adorable.  

They would be perfect to attach to a lanyard with your badge so you always had a pen! Or attach one to a clipboard!

They would also make a cute (and cheap) gift for teammates.  Put a ribbon around  two or three with a cute phrase like, "Thanks for making our team colorful!" Sweet, thoughtful, and simple!

Mr Sketch is my favorite.  I have a hard time sharing them. Apparently I don't play well with others sometimes.  This was a pretty good deal.  It is hard to find the 8 count packs because most are 12 packs.  There IS a better deal on Amazon right now- a 12 pack for $5.99, but I am not sure how long the price will last.

These little resource books are adorable.  They have academic ones as well as mazes.  I picked up the maze book for my daughter for road trips.  They would be great for inside recess!

I found the same product, with different packing, for the same price.  I am labeling these as a miss, but I still went ahead and bought them because I needed some.  It saved me from using my credit card, so that was worth it to me! LOL!

I love flair pens and LOVED these colors, but the exact same pack was cheaper on Amazon.

This is debatable because I couldn't find the same product.  However, I did find a HUGE pack of round brushes, PERFECT for classroom use for under $12.  I think I would rather avoid the fights and have 30 of the same brushes! LOL!

I have no idea if there are steals, deals, or missed, because I couldn't find anything just like it on Amazon!!

I liked the storage baskets.  They seemed like good quality!! These were a nice size and I loved the colors!

Same as above.   Great colors, nice size!

This may be random.  Okay, it IS random. I thought this laundry basketball game would be so cute for review.  You could hang it on a door or cabinet.  Put students into two teams.  Ask students review questions.  If they got the question correct, they got a point and a chance to shoot a basket for an additional point.  Can't you see your kids loving that for only $5?!?!?

These were workbooks that would be great for summer review or even home school.  Two dollars seemed like a good deal.  This publisher wasn't really available on Amazon.

I actually ran into another teacher by these!  We were both drooling!  These are large dry erase dots.  She was a high school teacher and was going to put it outside her door for notes to students.  My first thought was to put a dot at each seat at your small group table.  Kids could write directly on the dry erase dot to show their thinking! So fun and bright!  I didn't really see anything comparable on Amazon, but $2 each seemed reasonable to me!

Did I get it all?  Did I miss anything?  Do you have any favorites at Five Below?

 If you would like more ideas from The Primary Peach, be sure to follow us on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook to catch all the freebies and ideas and more!

PIN FOR LATER:

Spring into April: Paper Saving Tips for Earth Day and Every Day!

Happy Spring, Everyone!  It’s Tami from Kamp Kindergarten.  Earth Day is just a few days away.  It is also getting to the point in the school year where supplies are running low and everyone is thinking of ways to stretch their meager store of paper until the end of the year. 

CVC Clip Cards in a Photo Album

 

I have found task cards to be a great way to save paper.  You do have an initial investment of copy paper or card stock, but once the cards are made, you have them to use year after year.  Many task cards utilize recording pages to provide accountability. I will be offering suggestions to provide accountability that require little or no paper.

 

Farm Kids Addition Math Center and Journal Used for Responses

A quick and easy way to hold students accountable for task card material is have them record their responses in their journals.  This uses paper that you already have in the classroom without making additional copies.  I also like that you can look back through the journal and note how the learner has progressed through the year. 

CVC Spell the Room Using an Individual Dry Erase Board for Responses

There are ways other than using journals for students to record student responses such as individual dry erase boards, but these are temporary.  If you want to keep a record, you can use a digital camera or your phone to snap a photo of their responses.  These photos can be used in digital portfolios. You will have them to reference when you are assessing student progress, for student/teacher or parent/teacher conferences, making comments for progress reports and report cards, and for data for RTI meetings. 

Pumpkin Seed Add the Room Response Page in a Dry Erase Pocket

You can print one copy of the recording sheet and put it in a dry erase pocket.  Learners use a dry erase marker to record their responses.  You may use a digital camera or the camera on your phone to make a photo of their work before they erase their responses.

 

Kids at the Beach Subtraction Center Response Page in a Sheet Protector

If you don’t have any dry erase sleeves, you can print one copy of the recording sheet and put it in a regular sheet protector pocket for binders.  Use a clipboard to provide stability. 

Using an Individual Dry Erase Board for Apple Dice Add the Room Responses

When using dry erase methods for recording responses, provide learners with an inexpensive black glove to use as an eraser. Putting on the glove and getting the thumb and fingers in the right space adds a fine motor opportunity to the activity.

Pirate Domino Add the Room Cards in a Photo Album

Many task cards will fit in dollar store photo albums for 4X6 photos.  Add a dry erase marker and you have a quick and easy write and wipe activity.  As an added bonus, learners who are overwhelmed by a large amount of material at once are confronted with only one task at the time before turning the page.

One last tip…

 

Cutting CVC Spell the Room Cards with a Paper Cutter

This one will not save paper, but it will save time.  If the cards have straight edges instead of irregular shapes, use a paper cutter to cut out the cards.  You will have nice straight edges without hours of eyestrain and tedious cutting.

I hope you find these tips helpful. Be sure to check the Primary Peach for other posts in this series.

Happy Earth Day!

Tami

Kamp Kindergarten on TpT

Kamp Kindergarten on Facebook

Kamp Kindergarten on Instagram

Kamp Kindergarten’s Blog

A Teaching Pot of Gold: 5 Tips for Efficient Parent Communication

I am so excited to be back here at the Peach sharing some teacher tricks!  My post will hopefully make your year, well...a treasure ;).

When I first started teaching I would always gets annoyed when a child's folder came back fully stuffed with papers, obviously untouched.  I mean really, people?  How hard is it to check a folder?

Now that I am a parent I realize, it can be hard, very hard. And my girls are still in preschool!  I can imagine it will only get more difficult as the girls get older and we add dance and gymnastics and Wednesday night church to our plates.

I guess the trick is to make it as easy on parents as possible.  So how can you make this easy on YOU and the parents?  How can you increase parent involvement and communication? Here are a few easy tips.

When I was teaching I created a blog using Typepad.  It was easy to update during the week and  I was even able to add pictures of students during the week.  I also uploaded a copy of the monthly newsletter.

A friend of mine has created a private Facebook group. She loves it and so do her parents.  It might even be easier than a blog!  You can upload pictures and documents in a group and even add events to remind parents of special events like Open House, conferences, etc.

If you choose to do something online, just make sure the district approves this form of communication.  You also are going to want some kind of release form for photographs. Your school or district may already require one. Here are two examples I found. You can see them here and here.

I am sure you have heard all about Remind. It is an awesome and FREE way for teachers to keep in contact with parents. You can send text straight to your parent's phones while keeping your personal phone number private.  It is an ingenious idea! It would be great for reminders of dates, special events, returning library books a folders.

Send home sweet notes to the kids.  Parents love knowing positive things about their children.  I know it can be hard to find time to do, but is so important. Did you decorate your door in the beginning of the year?  I can't find a picture of mine, but here is an example I found online:

{source}

Instead of just tossing the die cut (or in this case the sweet little owl) into the trash or folder when you done, keep them! Write a note to the child on the back and staple it in their agenda randomly.  I kept all mine in plastic baggie.  When I had an extra second or two, I would pull out one or two.  Then I would write a note to the child and staple it in the agenda.  Stapling usually made it stay there long enough for parents to see it, too! 

 It was a win-win!  The kids felt good, the parents felt good, and was super simple for me since I had made the door at the beginning of the year.

Do you send home a newsletter?  I did one monthly.  Actually, I didn't.  My co-teacher did.  I was terrible at writing the newsletters. She was amazing.  We were a pretty good team! LOL! I struggled with newsletters because I felt parents did not read them.  When I wrote them, I only send home a newsletter once a month. She wrote one EVERY week.  I am telling you.  She was good! She included:

• homework for the next week
• specials rotation (art, PE, etc because it changed every week)
• a calendar of upcoming events
• important notes
• enrichment ideas

Here is a sample of what ours looked like in February 4th, 2013.

She did a great job.

If you worry about parents reading your newsletter, I LOVE this article by Jennifer from Cult of Pedagogy.  She did a guest post for Laura Candler all about how to get parents to read your newsletter.  She even included FREE newsletter templates!

Any tips I left out?  How do you communicate with parents effectively?

Pin it for later:

 If you would like more ideas from me, be sure to follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers, Pinterest, and Facebook to catch all the freebies and ideas and more!