Organizing Your Classroom Library

Of you are like me you are obsessed with buying children’s books for your classroom. I cant believe how many books I have acquired over the past 7 years! I can’t tell you how many times I have organized, and reorganized, (and reorganized again) my classroom library. If this is on your back to school to do list here is a little advice. 🙂

1. Find some really sturdy bins. If you don’t want to buy new ones year after year when the old ones break invest in some strong ones. also try to find ones that wont be discontinued every year if you want them to match when you have to buy more the following year. These are some great bins I found at Target 3 years ago for relatively cheap ($15 for 6). They also come in a variety of colors and 3 different sizes and they’ve had them every year since.

2. Start piling books into categories that you seem to have a lot of. Things to think about: themes/units you teach, favorite authors, series books, class books, leveled books, etc.

3. Find labels for your bins. I made these ones for my classroom.

You can get the labels for your classroom here:

4. I attach my labels to the baskets with Velcro so they are easy to change if needed. When a basket gets too full I simply pull the label off and put it on a larger basket transfer the books and I’m done! Number your baskets in the small circle on each label. Use small circle stickers to label your books with the matching number for its basket.