5 Steps for Organizing Your Classroom Library

      Do you need to organize your classroom library? It is such a daunting task...I've been putting it off for years! HA Well, this was one of my summer projects and I'm so glad it's done! I can't wait to show my new first graders this August their new classroom library!

     It all started off when a colleague of mine sent me an email about a grant through our public library. Friends of the Phoenix Public Library has a program called Project Bookstorm that gives grants for books to teachers, school librarians, and other educators. If you live in AZ, please check it out! The application for the grant was so easy and later that week I received an email confirming that I was awarded one thousand books for my classroom! Now, these books aren't all brand new...only about a handful were new but they were in great shape! I set up an appointment and went "shopping" in a warehouse with a TON of books. These books were either donated or the "discard" books from other libraries. These books have been LOVED but still have a lot of life left! I was at the warehouse for over 3.5 hours and only grabbed 572 books. I would've stayed longer but I had to go to a dentist appointment (blah).

     So, getting almost 600 new-to-me books forced me to reorganize my classroom library! I had an idea of what I wanted to do (label each book with a matching label tub) but I just needed the motivation to get it all done!

     Now, I'm going to be real with you...It took me a LONG time and lots of help from my two cousins, sister, and mom. The process of organizing your classroom library is tedious, dusty, and time consuming but once it's done, you won't have to do it for a while (until you get another 600 more books haha).

    Here we go...

     If your books are anything like mine, they are DUSTY! I used disinfecting wipes and wiped down all of the books. The wipes also rubbed off old labels from my last library organizing adventure...which was a BIG plus. While you're at it, clean the tubs too! I found so many dust bunnies!

                       

     Once your books are clean, start sorting them! This was the toughest thing to do...especially with all of the new books I had. I started off with some general topics since I was sorting my classroom library by themes. I started off with the topics that I knew I had the most books in: farm, animals, Colonial America, America, habitats, alphabet, etc. I also separated out the books by the same author or the same characters: Kevin Henkes, Mercer Mayer, Amelia Bedelia, Little Critter Stories, Dr. Seuss, Olivia, Arthur, SkippyJon Jones, etc. Once you start sorting, you'll see if you need to sort them into even more specific topics! When I sorted them into the different topics, I started off by using sticky notes so I could tell what pile was what. 

                                              

                             

     When you have your books sorted, you can start labeling your book tubs. I have a mixture of book tubs from Really Good Stuff and the Dollar Tree. The tubs from Really Good Stuff are nice and sturdy and also very expensive! I got them 4-5 years ago and they are still holding up pretty well. I grabbed the Dollar Tree tubs this year after realizing that I needed about 20 more tubs (remember the almost 600 books?) They are WAY thinner and not as sturdy but for a dollar, I thought, "why not?" I'm going to try them and see how long they last!

     I made labels that fit in the Really Good Stuff tubs. I added pictures that matched the topic to help my early readers identify the books in the tubs.

                                  

     I used this AMAZING paper cutter from Target. I can't believe that I've been teaching for 6 years and I've cut out everything by hand! This thing makes it soooo easy!

     And just like that... 

                                       

                              

     This is the funnest part, labeling your books! This made my teacher heart oh so happy! I labeled each of the books with 2 labels. One label has my name and I put it on the inside cover of the book.                                                                                             

     Then, I labeled each single book with a label that matches their book tub! These are the labels:

 

     Here you can see my lovely cousins cutting out the labels and organizing them! {Don't tell them I took this haha}

                                      

     Having the matching labels is going to make the classroom library SO organized! All of the students are going to know where each book knows just by looking at the cover and matching it to the tub. 

                       

                                        

                                    

     Now, how you store your books might be different...it all depends on what you have available in your classroom. I have 3 bookshelf cubby things that I put my tubs in. It keeps all tubs available and in an easy to reach spot for them to grab books. Here is a little picture:

                                      

     If you have metal bookshelves or even plastic crates, you can use those to store your books! My first couple of years, I didn't even have bookshelves! I just put the tubs along the wall near the classroom rug! 

     If you'd like to check out the labels that I used for my classroom library...click the picture below! I included an EDITABLE version, the book tub labels, and the matching labels for your books...Everything that you need for organizing your classroom library. 

                                              

     How do you organize your classroom library!? Share below in the comments!

100th Day Pictures and STAPLES Finds!

Hello, hello!
Yes, I am blogging two days in a row... WOAH! I am feeling pretty accomplished.
Today was a much better day. I don't know if it's because I cracked the whip {a lot of my kiddos were moving their clips down and going to thinking time for talking/shouting out} or if it's because it was a half day! Our half days are pretty amazing. We go in at 8 and dismiss at 11:30! Super short... my day consisted of:
7:55- The first bell rings and I open the door to let my kiddos in. They grab their breakfast, put their folders in their cubbies, put their behavior charts in the purple tub, hang up their backpacks/coats, and get to eating.
8:17- Students clean up their breakfast and meet me on the carpet for calendar.
8:20- Calendar helper starts calendar. She goes over today's date, yesterday, and tomorrow. We also add a straw to our place value chart and add a dot to our 100's chart. While this is happening, my breakfast helpers are taking out the extra breakfast, cooler, and trash to the hallway and my messenger helpers are moving clips up for friends that brought in their behavior charts and put them in the purple tub.
8:30- We start Phonics. My district uses the Fundations program and I LOVE it! Well, to tell you the truth it is the ONLY phonics program I have used...lol. We quickly practice letters and sounds, we did some writing on our dry erase boards, used our magnetiles to spell, and practiced writing in our composition books. I love how we use different methods to practice our spelling!
9:15- Start our reading block. This is when I use the basal- Harcourt's StoryTown. Anyone else use it??? It is aligned to the AZ state standards but know that we are going to start using Common Core Standards {next school year}, I am a little bit afraid that our district will change programs! In StoryTown, we do The Question of the Day, a read aloud, practice HFW, do some phonological awareness activities, phonics/spelling, reading, fluency, comprehension stuff, and other stuff I probably forgot. It is long but I do it for an hour a day!
10:15- Time for LUNCH!
10:45- Pick up the kiddos from lunch and do a couple rounds of The Daily 5!
11:25- Stamp behavior charts, pack up and dismiss at 11:30!!

See... it was super short and I have a half day again tomorrow {thanks to our Winter Conferences!}

Maybe I should of linked up to the linky party that was going around about a regular day. Maybe Monday?
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Here are some pictures of the activities we did for the 100th day of school!

I told my sweeties to not look at my phone while I was taking pictures. They were acting all natural {do you see their smiles?} too cute!
Here, they are making the band for their 100th day crowns. They are writing their numbers {1-100}. Some kiddos that needed extra support were able to use their 100's chart!

This is the entrance to our classroom {as inspired by Pinterest- I just saw a picture}I just cut strips into long pieces of butcher paper. I used red and yellow to give it a little more depth and contrast and OHMYWORD you should have seen their little faces when I opened the door! They were so excited and they loved it. They even walked into the room slowly, enjoying the streamers on their face! Haha They were super cute. I really wanted to write something like "You Are 100 Days Smarter" like the picture I saw but I didn't have time! :( I was busy trying to cut the pieces straight! My door opens to the outside and I love it because it looks extra bright. We aren't "allowed" to keep our doors open because fire code or something like that but I had conferences that day so I propped the door open and had beautiful AZ sunshine shining through!

Inspired by Mrs. Jump's Class, we made our 100 year old portraits. They came our really cute but I wish I would have cut out some of the stuff for them because they were all over the place. Plus, I couldn't find googly eyes so I had to use beads! I will be more prepared next year.
I love how the one on the right has curls!

Here they are working on their old people on the carpet. I love when they work together without me telling them to do so! Some are also wearing their crowns that were floating around Pinterest too!

These old men have teeth and my little old lady has sleeves in her dress LOL!

Yeap, that's a big mouth!







We also made 100 fruit loop necklaces. They had to make 10 groups of ten fruit loops and then string them to make a necklace. They loved it. It was fun but exhausting! I plan on being more prepared for next year because I didn't know what I was getting into since I didn't do anything last year!
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This is a picture of my little sweetie wearing her sparkly pink Toms. I got them for her months, maybe a year ago, but they were too big and I did not want to ship them back. Well, she found them in her closet and really wanted to wear them. They are still a teeny bit big but not that noticeable! We {my daughter and I} have a ton of Toms and I love them because they are soooo comfy and the sparkly ones seem fancy {to wear to school}. I have 'em in gold, silver, and black glitter. I also have a ton of non-glitter ones... but I wont list the colors because there are too many to list... I might have a problem

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STAPLES deals!!

I went to Staples today to find a gift for my valentine exchange and I found some good stuff on clearance!

Post-It flags for FIFTY CENTS!!! Guess how many of each I bought??? 

Six!

 How could I not. It is such a good deal and I love "tabbing" some stuff for my students! Score!

I also bought some paper trays for $2.50, Kleenex packs/hand sanitizer spray/Halloween stickers for 50 cents, and I finally bought the flat bottom file folders that I am going to use to organize my daily materials! I found a 12 pack for 15 bucks. That's the best deal I could find! 

Be prepared for a lot of pictures of my purchases below!

The NoteTabs were also fifty cents!

Wooh! That was a ton of pictures!! 

Thanks for sticking through this super long and random post! ;)
Good night and a big oh yeah for it being almost Friday!!

Woo Hoo and Feeling Pretty Great...

Let me tell you, this blogging gig is pretty tough. I want to share about my day, tell some funny stories, and  tell you everything I know but I keep finding that by the end of the day I am *exhausted*. I take forever writing my posts {seriously like hours... am I the only one???} because I am re-reading them, adding pictures, fixing my grammar, and all that fun stuff {FYI I started typing this during my prep at 10:17 am}. I don't know where I am going with this but I just want to apologize if I say I will post something tomorrow and I don't!!! Don't be mad at me LOL!

So I will add the picture that I promised about the MLK Jr. activity that my kiddos did. They are cute beyond words! I love them!

Aw! Sooo adorable and they loved drawing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr!

Hehe! They were given a sentence strip and were to write a word that Dr. MLK Jr. stood for! They loved thinking about all those wonderful words!

So this is the "bulletin board" that I made out in the hallway. My classroom door opens outside so I don't have a real bulletin board. It's just butcher paper stapled to the wall of a hallway! I like it because it's bigger than real bulletin boards! 

(Do you all see the MLK Jr. with the mean mustache??? LOL)

I am soo happy that I finally had time to clean out my desk and here it is!

It's super clean and empty!!!

Our wonderful custodian said that he would move it today after school and I went in about 4 o'clock and the big chunk of a desk was still sitting there! He must've been super busy or something because he is usually on top of everything at my school!! So now it's sitting right in front of the door and hopefully he can move it on Monday!! :) YAY!

Now I need to explain my Woo Hoo from my title. I was so excited to find out a couple of days ago that I won a giveaway from ImageStuff (makers of Brag Tags) on their blog! The giveaway was for a set of addition Flash Tags and a subtraction set of Flash Tags!! I am eager to get them so my firties can practice their math facts with these! They look awesome!

These are it! :) Don't they look wonderful!?

I am also feeling pretty great about reading! One of my personal goals this year is to read more books! In the past week, I have read more {me-time} books than I have in the past 3 years {thanks to my Kindle}! Yeah, a fast-track teacher program and first year of teaching will do that to someone!! I am genuinely happy when I get to read! I love it so much! Back in high school, I would get in trouble for reading books during Chemistry! Ha! I finished The Hunger Games and Catching Fire in a couple of days and now I am on to numero 3, Mockingjay. I am 49% into it! They are sooo good!!! :)

I lost a student and got a new student on Thursday! He was absent today so I hope he comes back. I have 23 students in my classroom! 

Oooh before I forget!!! 2nd Grade Stuff is celebrating 100 followers with a $10 TpT gift card!!! Go on over and check her out!!! 

Good Night, All!! :) I am off to read my book! 

The Scoreboard and a MLK Jr. Day Activity!

Hello all and happy {almost} Wednesday! I haven't had the smoothest day so this is going to be short and quick so Aly and I can go to bed!

I wanted to write a little more about The Scoreboard I use in my class. This is a Whole Brain Teaching Strategy!

This is one of my scoreboards. I have two that I use in my classroom. This is a portable one that I use during carpet time. I used painter's tape to make the partitions. You can use any colored tape and I had it handy! The smiley and the frowney are written in dry erase marker.

This is my second scoreboard that is on my whiteboard. I use this mostly during "desk time". It's all written in dry erase marker so I have to be careful when I erase!

The scoreboard changed my room completely!! :) The kids love earning smileys. The class can earn smileys by doing what's expected and they earn frownies by not doing what's expected. Pretty simple! Here comes the fun part:

Smileys: (tally on the smile side) When the students earn a smiley they can have a one hour second party by shouting out "OH YEAH!

Frownies: (tally on the sad sideWhen they earn a frownie, they all have to do a mighty groan {the sound and shrug}. You can see an example in my last video.

Rewards: At first, you can just have the kids win. After a while you can give them a small reward like going to lunch 2 minutes early, 2 extra minutes of recess, or 2 extra minutes of center time. I usually play a song as a reward {Justin Bieber, Harry Kindergarten, Tony Chestnut, Cha Cha Slide, YMCA). You can even make the reward something that you are already going to do. For example, while we were studying bats their reward was watching a short video on bats {that was already on the lesson plan}!! Double WIN!

3 +/- Rule: You need to keep the score fairly close. You never want to win by 4 or more or lose by 4 or more!! The win has to feel attainable and if you have 30 more tallies on the frownie side than the smiley side, your students might give up! :(

{I think} that's all I have to say about the scoreboard! If you have any questions... comment below! I will be super happy to try answer them! :)

MLK Jr. Day Activity!

First, we read A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr. By David A. Adler.

It has really nice illustrations and my ELLs understood most of the language!!

Then, we made a bubble map describing MLK Jr. and his beliefs! (Sorry, no picture!)

After, we did the cute MLK Jr. drawing that I got from Mrs. Miner's blog. Click {HERE} to check out her post and freebie!

I did the drawing step by step on my document camera and the students did the drawings at their desks! They came out soooo lovely!!! :) Here are a couple of pictures!

Oops! I forgot to take a picture of the finished portraits :/ I will take a picture of them tomorrow! 
Have a fabulous evening, friends!! :)

The Clutter-Free Classroom Project Week 1:

Before Pictures!

EEEK!

I didn't want to post any before pictures but I saw some brave blog buddies doing it so I had to!

I am joining The Clutter-Free Classroom Project!

I am so nervous to post these because what if I don't organize and my room keeps looking like a hot mess??? Hopefully you all will keep me motivated! :)

Here we go!

This is right by my door and my coat rack. It used to hold my math manipulatives but it is now the cubbies! I have gotten 3 new students in the past few weeks and the 4x5 wasn't cutting it! I love this 5x5 but if I get more than 2 new students I will be in big trouble! I still need to add names and numbers. I have my orange "turn in" tub on top, some tissues, hand sanitizer, a tub to hold some awards, and the purple envelopes hold their class money! I really need to pass them back out! I would really like to put some sort of decorative contact paper on top and on the bottom of the cubbies but I don't know if I have the energy for that! Maybe!

 

This is {supposed to be} the bookshelf where I keep all of the guided reading books and other Harcourt materials. The books are pretty organized by level and lesson but I hardly use them because they are just too hard for my ELLs. I also keep random stuff in there so I want to make it a little more efficient by keeping the books that I use more often. Right beside this bookshelf is my horseshoe table that I {am supposed to}use for small groups. I've had so much junk on it that I have been pulling my small groups on the carpet and on the students' desks! That is soooo bad!

So this is the infamous horseshoe table that needs to be cleaned up so I can use it for my small groups! I want to make those cute Pinterest snowmen with the shaving cream {as you can probably tell}. I am organizing my emergency sub plans in the red tub! The rest of the stuff is just miscellaneous cra... I mean, stuff!

This is my portable bookshelf/storage-thingy. I have a love-hate relationship with this thing. I love that it holds a ton of stuff (there are shelfs on the front and in the back-this picture is of the back) but then I hate that it takes up sooo much space! I am in the process of organizing this bad boy! I plan on having all of my art materials in their own little tubs with labels! I can't wait! I just have to make the labels and organize them... such hard work! I have a tub of books just hanging on top. I either need to organize them in my library or donate them!

This is my Sand and Silt FOSS kit. It is an awesome and easy way to teach science and it correlates to our standards! :) We are all finished with it so I just need to fill out the paperwork so it can be sent back to the district warehouse where they replenish it and send it off to another teacher!

That big ol' pile of paper on top is {ungraded} homework!! I need to fill up their sticker chart so this pile is a priority!

My sink and counter area are just a places that hold random things. I have some danish butter cookies a container with paint cups that was left by the old teacher.

More random stuff, disinfecting wipes that don't fit in my newly organized cabinets, more hand sanitizer, a basket, papers, and my pencil sharpener! Blah! I need to clean, clean, clean!

This cabinet is also portable and it holds lots of stuff, which is good because we don't have any built-in shelfs and stuff (beside the teeny ones above and below the sink). I have tubs of math manipulatives that I don't use in there and my bee-u-tiful construction paper! I will take a pic tomorrow!

Above the cabinet is where the mess is! As I was organizing, I put all of the stuff I didn't know what to do with up there! I want to go through and either throw it away or find a place for it all! 

The baskets under my calendar wall are supposed to be the classroom library! I need to organize them, label the books and the baskets, and keep it that way! I just haven't had the motivation to label each book! I would really enjoy seeing my kiddos using it efficiently though!

Here are all of my math manipulatives and my old cubbies {the 5x4}. I need to re-label the ones on the left and need to throw out some stuff on the right! If you look closely on top of the right shelfs you can see me as a first grader! I keep my Kindergarten and First Grade picture for my kids to see so they are reminded that I was once their age too! I love my heart pillows but they are such a pain to keep on the floor! I hang my read hearts on the coat rack but they take up so much room!

This is a bookshelf that is behind my math manipulatives. I keep crayons, scissors, markers, notebooks, and junk all over it! I know I can find a better place for all of those materials!! I just know it!
There is also a pile of picture dictionaries on the floor. I need to start using them!
If you squint you can see a picture of my sweet Alyssa on the whiteboard! I love that child!

This table is supposed to hold my daily plans and materials. It is just under my whiteboard so when I try to write I have to be on my tippy-toes. It is a mess. I still have stuff in the baskets that I was supposed to use before the holidays! I want to get rid of the baskets and use hanging file folders for my daily materials!

Now to the scary part of my room -my desk area! I just use it to hold my lesson plans and the rest of the stuff that doesn't have a place! Good news is that all of the drawers are empty and I just need to organize the stuff on top and this baby will be GONE! The table behind the desk is where I keep my laptop, the document camera, projector, and speaker. I didn't take a close up picture but there is always junk on that thing!

This is a side view of my desk area. I stuff all that wonderful fadeless paper in the corner, leave all my junk (bags, cart, and Target shopping bags). Sometimes I can't even walk through there! YUK!

This is another messy bookshelf behind my desk. I have teacher resource books, Harcourt teacher editions, markers, Biffytoons, page protectors, CD's, airfreshner, and a collection of stuff on the surrounding floor area! I know this space can be used more effectively!!

This is my writing table and next to it is my listening center. I need to get rid of the extra boom box, get rid of the rocks my sweeties brought from home during our Sand and Silt unit, and find another place for the paper and my box of borders that is overflowing!

I don't even want to talk about this picture of the stuff on top of my filing cabinet! Blah! Gross! Mess!

This is a close up of the bookshelf behind my soon-to-be-gone desk! So many note pads!






WOWSERS!! Those are a ton of "MESS" Pictures! I really hope blogging about my progress makes me have progress! LOL

I wanted to show you all my class rules with the updated picture for Rule #5! Yes, I did tape my face to the rule! :) They walk by it every morning and see my face! Ha!

Alrighty!
I would love to hear some encouraging words about my hot mess of a classroom!

So I don't know if anyone got to the end of this *HORRIFIC* post but if you did, I thank you!! Yay! It's almost FRIDAY!!!

TTYL!