Book Room Make Over

Our Book Room recently went through a make over!  We dismantled our old room due to construction in our school.  But that was okay, because it was needing a make over anyway!

I had a system in mind as we went through this make over process.  

First, we needed to decide how we would level our book sets that our teachers would be using for small groups.  We use Fountas and Pinnell letter system for our book sets.  

I mostly used 2 websites to search book titles.  The main one I used is Fountas and Pinnell Leveled Book Website.  It does cost, but it is only $25 per year to use.  This is the site that I trust the most for leveling books.  They use a 10 point check system to level books which makes it more accurate.  If I couldn't find a book title here, I then used Scholastic's Book Wizard.  Most books, I double checked the levels to try to find the most accurate one.

Next, I wanted to create a master list of books that teachers could look up online without having to actually go to the book room.  I chose Classroom Booksource .  I scanned or typed in the ISBN number of every book.  Classroom Booksource then created our list of books so teachers can look them up to see what books we have, the genre and the book level.  This was a HUGE job to scan all the books or hand type it all in but once it was completed, it was worth it.  

Now it was time to print out labels for each of the book sets.  We used Avery labels and you can design labels right on their site.  I just typed in the information we wanted on the labels and sent it to our printer to print.  We already had boxes for our books so we repurposed them and I put the new labels right on the old boxes.

We used to use the old library book check out system with teachers signing their names to a card on the side of the box.  There were several problems with this system.  Mostly, teachers didn't do it.  I was guilty of it too.  You forget to bring a pencil or are in a hurry so you just take the books and go.  And when you brought the books back...you could waste a lot of time searching to see where the books belonged.  The boxes all looked the same and boxes may have gotten moved around since you had checked the books out.  I hated resolving books!  Just a time waster!

This time we are using a clip system.  No pencils needed and takes almost no time to do!  Each teacher has a set of colored clips.  She takes a clip from her hanger on the wall and just clips it to the box she is borrowing books from.  

Now we the teacher comes back to return the books, all she has to do is look for her color of clips.  The colored clips stand out against the white label making it much, much easier and quicker to check in and out books.  If it is easy and quick, more teachers will likely use it!

We have also set up shelves for mentor texts and for teacher resources.  

Do you have a book room?  How is it organized?

New Resource:  Long and Short Vowel Word Work

These picture cards and letter strips make great literacy centers or Write the Room Activities!

Short Vowel Cards and letter strips can be used together or alone depending on how you need to differentiate for your students.

Long Vowels

Long Vowel and Short Vowel mixed activity!

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