Classroom Library Organization

Since I thought I was meant to teach primary grades forever, I had spent lots of money years collecting oodles of picture books. However, last year when I moved to fifth grade, I had to go on a chapter book buying frenzy. I visited tons of yard sales and thrift stores to fill up my classroom library. Between that and some generous donations from friends and family, I was able to fill up my classroom library pretty nicely.



I knew right away that I wanted to find some cute and sturdy containers to house my books. I found these inexpensive baskets last summer and L-O-V-E them! The dot cutouts are adorable and go well with other dotted items in my room. They are sturdy and the perfect size. I bought several of them in each color. These colors sort of developed into a theme after that. I found two rugs with the same colors and bought storage containers in the same lime green and blues. It worked to create unity in my room.

I chose to organize my books by genre or topic because it has been my personal experience {not saying this is always true. at. all.} that my students tend to choose books by interest. I stumbled across Beth Newingham's awesome website! I printed her labels (view them here), laminated them, and hot glued them to the front of the baskets to make it easy for students to find books they enjoy. I do have some picture books set out, but I don't have nearly enough room for them all. Sigh. All I know is that my future children {personal kiddos, that is} will have plenty of books to read one day! :)

Anyhow, I will try to post some pics of my library once I return to my classroom to get to work. How do you organize your classroom library?