Raise your hand if you’ve ever had your classroom library turn into a complete nightmare- I know I have! In this post, we will go step by step to help your classroom library become the beautifully organized space you know it can be. Additionally, students will learn to navigate the library independently and keep it clean ALL YEAR LONG. Don’t miss out on my must know secret about how to make this happen for the whole year without any hard work from you.
Books for your Classroom Library
The first step in creating a classroom library is gathering the books. These may be books you inherited from another teacher, books you’ve slowly been collecting over the years, or maybe you still need to continue building your library. If you need more books, I would suggest creating a Scholastic teacher account. That’s a great way to build a love of reading and get free books. Also, shop your local thrift shops and garage sales because they always have tons of great children’s books for a really great price.
Classroom Library Organization Setup
After you have your books ready to go, it’s time to setup your library space! There are a few important things to keep in mind when getting ready:
- Take a look at your classroom space where you already have shelves. Can you use the given shelves? Do you need to get more?
- Think through the amount of students that will be in your classroom library at any given time. You want to make sure there is enough room for all of them to fit comfortably.
- What type of bins will you have in your library? See more about that in the section below.
- Will you add some type of seating for students in the library?
- What organizational systems will you use to keep things organized all year? See more ideas in that section below.
Below are a few sample classroom library setups. As you can see, there are a lot of shelves to hold all the books needed. There is seating included for students to enjoy their time in the library. There’s also a good amount of space for students to fit in the library and get books as needed. We also love our placeholders on top for books coming soon to get students excited about reading.
Choose Bins to Organize your Classroom Library
Now that you’ve got your books and space ready, it’s time to choose bins for your classroom library! There are SO many different kinds of bins you can use. In this post I am going to share two of my favorites and why.
Let’s start with Dollar Store bins. These are GREAT bins for classroom library books. Not only are they inexpensive, but they are large enough to hold an entire category of books, whether they are large or small books. They also fit really nicely on most size shelves. They are quite durable and hold up really nicely even with littles. See them in action below!
Another favorite book bin is the Lakeshore Learning bins! Not only are the colors beautiful, but these bins are super durable. They are small enough to fit quite a few together on shelves and hold both small and large books. They come with a label holder so you can easily slip and change out your own labels! These bins are more expensive than the others but will last for years to come. See them in action below!
Organizational Systems for Your Classroom Library
To start the classroom library organization process, I begin by assessing the collection of books in front of me and organizing them into piles of common themes/topics. I typically have many categories for our books, such as animals, humor, fairy tales, back to school, seasons, and holidays. These are to just name a few of the categories I sort books into.
After organizing into categories, print and laminate genre bin labels and add to book bins. By using kid-friendly labels, you can guarantee independence and organization all year long.
Now it’s time to label the books and organize them into bins. I love using the same bin labels on the books! They can be printed on stickers and attached to the books. This makes it easy to add and continue growing your library. In case the books do become disorganized, it’s easy to sort them back where they go! Because the labels are kid-friendly, students can do this task independently. This is the secret to the classroom organizational success for the entire year! See some examples below and don’t forget to grab the labels and get started!
Editable Visual Classroom Library Labels
Just remember, the ultimate goal is to have a well organized space that is easy to navigate AND clean up. I love having thematic bins for primary students because it is easy for them to utilize them all by themselves. For my bin labels, I create brightly colored pictures that are easy for students to see with the title. This is the crucial piece needed to keep the library organized all year long. Students can see exactly where the book needs to go back because it’s labeled to match a bin. This makes it so easy for them to return without support.
Teach and Reteach
Once you’ve spent all the time and effort to sort, organize, and set up your library, it’s important to implement a system to keep it that way. One thing I do is “book shopping days” once a week. I send 5 students to our library at a time and they know they have to put their previous books back before getting new ones. The matching book labels pictured below help students keep the books organized in the correct bins. Grab the editable book shopping system FREE by subscribing below!
Storage and Care of Your Organized Classroom Library
How are you feeling about your classroom library organization?! Are you ready to dive in and get everything setup and organized for good? Before I leave you, let’s discuss one last important step. Where students store their books and how they care for them.
After they return their books, they can spend some time picking 5 new books to keep in their book bag for the week. You can use bags or bins for students to keep them in. I personally like to use bags because they are easy to store in their desk or bin. This process does take some time for students to get down, but they get quicker as the year goes on. While students take turns picking new books, the other students are reading. To further help keep up with your classroom library organization, we also have a librarian who helps with our tidiness. One of their jobs is to go through the book bins at the end of the week and make sure all books are organized in their correct bins.
A few more things to practice at the beginning of the year are:
What to do when someone wants a book we want
How we love, care for, and respect our books
What happens if a book is accidentally damaged
With solid systems in place that allow students to independently choose and love books, your classroom library will soon become one of their favorite places! Now is the time to enjoy and watch your little readers grow and become more independent!
Want even more tips and tricks for your classroom library? Learn more by watching the YouTube video below!
Easy Classroom Library Organization Tips and Tricks
So are you ready to organize your classroom library and set your students up for success? You’ll LOVE this jam packed Editable Classroom Library Label pack. You’ll have everything you need to organize books by genre and create ownership over your library. There are over 75 different categories, as well as editable labels to create your own! They can be printed on Avery labels so that all you have to do is peel and stick them on the books! I love these because there are big labels for the book baskets and little labels for the books. With this system, students know exactly where the book belongs and they’ll soon become masters at putting them back! You find these also included in the Classroom Organization Growing Mega Bundle where you can organize EVERYTHING in your room. This is the secret to fostering true independence in your classroom!
Editable Classroom Library Labels
Organizing your classroom library this thoroughly is definitely a time consuming process, but SO worth it. I have never seen as much reading growth as I have this year. I truly believe that allowing book choice, along with a variety of books, and an organized system, has been a huge contributing factor. You can also routinely rotate through books so that they don’t get bored and you don’t have to display all your books at one time, possibly overfilling the library.
Loved this and want to read more? Check out these other great posts below that give amazing recommendations to fill your library up with the greatest reads!
Ultimate List of Books To Celebrate Diversity
20 Awesome Books for Social Emotional Learning
Best Picture Books for Teaching Math Concepts for K-2
I hope you enjoyed learning how to master organizing your classroom library! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! Not only will you get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the Book Shopping System FREEBIE! You will also have exclusive access to tons of digital how to videos! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.
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