After a week of summer school with kindergarten friends, I was ready for a break. But after some days in my classroom with kids, I had an idea for a project and just couldn't wait to get started. I don't have a classroom library, per say. Instead I have 16 huge baskets of leveled books spread out on 4 different shelves in my classroom. My students have a book bin they keep in their cubby. They choose books on their level and keep them in their book bin for a week and then we change them out. I've done this for a few years now and for me, it works really well. I have my reading stations set up so that students do a tub activity and then get their books for independent reading. After some stamina is built, tub activities take less time and then there is more time for reading to self. One thing I decided I need to tweak was how books are changed out. For a student on level B, I have 2 huge baskets of B level books. I would only pull one out, but kids took FOREVER to find their 5 books because there were so many to choose from.
I decided to get the small book bins from Wal-Mart and have a bin for each level, as needed. This would give the students less books to look through at a time and then I could change out my bins every so often to give them new books and hopefully create some excitement. Hubs had a shelf in the shed that worked perfectly (even though it was grudgingly given, lol).
This is how it looks now. It's a start. All of the white space above my wooden shelf says DECORATE ME! I'm still thinking about what to do there. The wooden shelf will house word work folders once school gets started. I didn't have a whole lot of time to do more with my wild man running around my room.
