Library Organization: A Bright Idea!

It's time! Time for the third round of the Bright Ideas linky! 150 bloggers have teamed up this time to bring you some more bright ideas to help make things in your classroom go 150% easier!

My bright idea has to deal with library organization - your classroom library!

{GRAPHIC CREDITS: Krista Wallden (Creative Clips) & KG Fonts}

My kiddos enjoy reading more than any other children I have ever met - therefore, our classroom library is stocked full of tons of different books across all different genres.

To name a few, we have biographical, science fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, folk-tale, and so on!

So, I needed a way to organize those books. 

{GRAPHIC CREDITS: Krista Wallden (Creative Clips) & KG Fonts}

Meet my classroom library bins. They're no longer this organized… but you can walk in my room and tell my kiddos love reading!!

I got the bins from Big Lots at the beginning of the school year and have LOVED them ever since. Easily stores most chapter books and each bin stores around 20-25 books. Perfect solution.

Then, I arrange my bins based on the series rather than genre - this makes it easier than having 15 bins for fiction and 17 for non-fiction. Instead, we've got bins for Magic Tree House, Who Was/What Was series, Junie B. Jones, and so forth. The kids know which books go where and if they are in search of something, they read the tags and find it really quickly!

{GRAPHIC CREDITS: Krista Wallden (Creative Clips) & KG Fonts}

THEN beyond that, my kiddos and I are all about Accelerated Reader, otherwise known as AR. 

Each time they read a book, they then take a short comprehension quiz on the storybook. This shows whether they understood what they read or not. I, as the teacher, get a detailed report of each students' progress on EACH book's quiz they take. I love it, and they love looking at the data that they receive AFTER they complete the test.

We also rely heavily on our AR levels - otherwise known as our ZPD levels. This level is what helps my students choose their books that they can read AND understand.

To help solve the issue of not knowing which books are at which level, I have begun (never too late!!) to label each book with their AR level and how many points their quizzes are worth.

BACKTRACK: I set a goal for each of my students to reach a certain amount of points by taking AR tests. That's where the point obsession comes into play.

But, I am running out of steam when it comes to writing the words "AR level" and "Points" in each book, so I created these to help save some time and energy:

VERY easy and simple! Now I just have to write two numbers, peel it, and stick it. DONE!

These are just two SIMPLE ways to organize my library to truly keep MY sanity! And, to make it easier for my kiddos to find that JUST right book :)

What are some things you do in YOUR classroom library to make it easier for your kiddos? Sound off in the comments below!

And for MORE great ideas, please look below and browse through the link-up, choosing the topics/grade levels that you'd like to check out! But, I won't lie to you - you may want to check out EVERY idea… they're all SO brilliant!

An InLinkz Link-up