My Classroom Library

My favorite part of my classroom is my library. It took me a long time to finally decide how I wanted to organize it, but now I just love it. (And I recently added my fake fire! I call my classroom "The Cabin" because I am out in a portable) I have my chapter books divided into bins. The bins are separated by author, genre, and award winning books. Each of the bins has a label.

I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but in the upper right hand corner of each book there is a sticker. That sticker corresponds with the matching sticker on the upper right hand corner of the book bin label. My students are LAZY and before I had the stickers they would just throw the books anywhere. After I added them, the books were always in the correct bin, or pretty darn close. If you like the book labels, you can find them at my TpT store.

TpT Book Plates

Ms. Smith's Favorite Books is probably my favorite book bin! I am constantly changing books in this bin because my students always want to read those books. This is an easy way for me to recommend books without much effort, especially if I am working with a different student.

This bench is in my library as well. My kids are always wanting to sit on it:) It's a popular place. I painted it on one of my summers off during college. I painted a scene from Where the Wild Things Are. It took me forever, but I sure do get a lot of compliments on it! And it gets even better...

The bench opens up!!!! I can store more books inside of it! I have too many books and not enough shelf space! It's great!

Each of my books has an Avery label on the back with my name. I always have extra labels printed out so if I get new books, I just stick them on the back. I know some of my books go missing every year, but if another teacher or a parent finds the book, they usually return it to me.

I have only been teaching 5th grade for 2 years, but I have gotten my classroom library books in a few different ways for not a whole lot of cash! Some great ways to add to your classroom library are:

-Scholastic Book Orders. You earn points from each order based on the dollar amount ordered and for every online parent order, you earn $3 to spend on books.

-Scholastic Warehouse Sale. We have a Scholastic Warehouse really close to my house (10 miles away). Every winter and spring they have a 50% off sale. I have signed up to volunteer at this sale. For every hour you volunteer, you earn a $10 voucher to spend that day. Last time I volunteered I got 30 new books for FREE!!!! It only cost me 4 hours of my time! Check out to see where the nearest Scholastic Warehouse is to you. Different states have the sales going on at different times. Warehouse Sale

-GoodWill is another great place to get books. Certain days they have 50% off of a particular color price tag. You'll have to check your local GoodWill for more information.

-Garage sales... but I haven't been as lucky at getting good, quality books in good condition.

Never pay full price for a book again! Seriously!!!!!