Yep I misspelled the title of the post-I can't seem to get my classroom shut down and it's so frustrating! I've covered and bagged, cleaned and put away....for a week now! I should be reminding myself that the last work day was just Tuesday-but really was hoping to not take all week. I finally took my computer down, just have to bag it tidy up my mess I've left and cover class library bookshelves. Which brings me to my request and outcry for help with CLASSROOM LIBRARIES!!!!!
This seems to be the one huge thorn in my side for two years running. It's just my second year in second grade (was in k5 before), and it's my first year in this classroom. I've arranged and re-arranged and finally have all other areas of my classroom how I would like them (for the most part). But no matter how I organize or categorize my books, I feel like the students still aren't able to search as easily as I'd like, not to mention put them back in the matching basket, I think my mix of overly labeled books from k5 and the extra genres and categories are confusing for a second grader. Next year I'm going to use color codes for reading levels. I recently obtained a metal shelf that I thought would be great (I even measured the small spaces for baskets-just clearly not very well) None of my baskets work and the ones that fit do not hold that many picture books.
I originally wanted to move my library area to the corner of the room, and the metal shelving to the side of it can be used to hang some of my cloth world and U.S. maps. Then I thought maybe I should separate the larger book bins (science, reptiles, birds, animal families, etc. my really large group of books) and have a "class community boxes" basically by themes, then have an area with the chapter books and leveled books, but I'm hopelessly lost :( Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated!
As you can see I just began with a pile and then got ready to get my shelves covered. So I had some kind of progress in a way. ;)
I originally wanted to move my library area to the corner of the room, and the metal shelving to the side of it can be used to hang some of my cloth world and U.S. maps. Then I thought maybe I should separate the larger book bins (science, reptiles, birds, animal families, etc. my really large group of books) and have a "class community boxes" basically by themes, then have an area with the chapter books and leveled books, but I'm hopelessly lost :( Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated!