THE BEST WAY TO ORGANIZE A CLASSROOM LIBRARY

Hey there!  It's mid-July, and for me, that means getting into OPERATION GET THIS CLASSROOM MADNESS UNDER CONTROL!  

As many of you already know, I'm leaving a 10 year streak of teaching first grade to move on to teach 2nd grade for this upcoming year.  I am so excited to learn new curriculum, have some of the same kiddos from last year, and just see all the kids and teachers again!  

So, as I made my way into my new room, the first thing I wanted to get started on was the classroom library.  The classroom library from the previous teacher was actually organized and looked great, but I had literally JUST finished redoing my first grade library, and I wanted this one to match.  (BTW - my principal is AMAZING and pours our building funds into creating a classroom library in each classroom, so my old library STAYS in my old room - I only took some of my own books that I had purchased and wanted to keep.)  Plus, this library will be equipped with books that are for an older grade.  Anyway! ...  so the madness starts!!!

Before I talk about the organization, I want to tell you WHY I do it the way I do. I have spent a lot of time researching and reading about best reading practices and ways to get kids to truly love reading and books. Last year, I read a book called Reading in the Wild  by Donalyn Miller...

Get it HERE to get it on Amazon

It is a must read, and I highly suggest all teachers read this. (Our school got to meet her!! Aren't we so lucky?!)  The philosophy takes you through what creates life-long readers and how to get kids to truly ENJOY READING. So in this book, Donalyn really pushes teachers to stop pushing reading levels on kids. She says that we should make sure kids feel like they’re more than just a level. Only letting kids pick from a certain level box in your room only limits them and doesn’t truly push them to go for what they are interested in. Reading should be fun! After all, I wouldn’t go to the store, and be forced to pick out a book or magazine about  sports or basketball. I wouldn’t like that at all! So why would we make our kids read things they aren’t interested in??! So having a classroom library that is full of different genres, characters, categories, authors, etc. is the way to go! I do have a “leveled area” and an “interest area” of my library so that way I can find certain levels easily for the kids. But the look and idea of this library is to promote their love of different topics and to get them excited to learn and see new things in their books.

Now for the fun part.  ORGANIZING!

First, you have to actually ORGANIZE the books. It took me many hours to stack them all in piles of “like topics” this is what it looked like...

Yeah, not fun... 

Then, I had to organize them to see how they would fit and how many shelves they would take up.  This was the tricky part since I don't have enough tubs yet.  

This is me organizing them by level and interest... And taking them all out of tubs and reusing the tubs on different shelves... (don't ask.. .it's not fun... it's tedious... and I'm sure there was a better way to do it, but when I get my mind set on something, it happens, so yeah.. there's that.)

Leveled Library shelves 

Interests - favorite series

More favorite series

Series into high interest topics, authors, and genres

PS - This is not how it will look - I will have different tubs.  I just wanted to see approximately how much space the tubs would take up.

Some of my categories for books are: Series' books (such as Biscuit, Fly Guy, Olivia, Nate the Great, Mr. Putter & Tabby, Judy Moody, Battle Bugs, Critter Club, Princess Posey, Galaxy Zack, Heidi Hecklbeck, Mighty Robot, and Stink,  + many more), nonfiction topics (such as mammals, sea animals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects, spiders, weather, plants, biographies, sports, space, + more..), favorite authors (such as Gail Gibbons, Robert Munsch, Doreen Cronin, Kevin Henkes), and other popular topics (such as fairy tales/fables, holidays, and graphic novels).

Teachers should just see what they have, and go from there!  This is the part that takes some time and thinking!

The next part just takes time!

Now that you have it organized the way you like it, it's time  to assign each bin a number.   I love to use these color coded labels for my bins. These are great and they actually come with a template you can download online so all you have to do it type in the numbers into the template!

I got these on Amazon!  Here is the link Round labels.
Here's the link for the square labels Square labels

 Colors and numbers are way easier for kids to find a home to put away than a label with the genre written on it.  I have done this a million different ways, and expecting kids to read the label and get it in the right place is down right nearly impossible. But adding a color, putting it in number order, and even a shape (circle or square) to the book makes it very easy for them to find the book's home, so it doesn't end up lost or shoved somewhere else 🤦🏻‍♀️.

By the way, do you like my tub labels?  The tub labels are a part of schoolgirl Style's Turquoise Paisley Pop Collection (I got this one new this year!) I love the splash of pink and green with my blue!  Go HERE to see this collection and others that are too cute for classrooms!
Next, I have created a label with words (that matches the label and picture I have on the tubs).

...And I put this label on each book as well as the color coded number for each bin.

This goes on every book!  I know this seems like a lot, but it's WORTH IT!  I hate it when kids don't know where the books go.  It drives me PINEAPPLES🍍!

Then, once it's all done, you will feel happy that you have it all organized and looking enticing for when the kids first come in the classroom door!  You have to keep the extra labels and number labels for when you get new books throughout the year!  You will undoubtedly get free scholastic books or someone will give you a book from the book fair.  Then it sits on a shelf and you have nowhere to put it!  (There's nothing more annoying than that!)  So just have the labels ready and handy (I keep mine in ABC order and number order so I can find them so easily.😜)
Then... Voila!  MAGIC!  There's nothing more exciting that looking at new books in new bins with new labels!  Here's a picture of my (old) classroom when it was finished being labeled.

My 2nd grade room is not quite done.  I will update you as it gets finished!

Thanks for reading!
~SHELLY

80 Day Obsession Food Prep and Tips

Hello lovely friends! Who had a great 4th of July? 🙋🏻‍♀️ I spent my day with some close friends and had a great ending by watching some fireworks in my community. The only photo I have is this lovely one isn’t my husband lovely? You try and get a good photo and he does stuff like this 🙄🙄. They say a picture is with a thousand words. This one definitely is 😂🤣.  

Timed Nutrition 

So I am starting my second round of 80 Day Obsession on Monday! But I started doing timed nutrition (again) a couple of weeks ago. It has really been the only meal plan that keeps me completely on track and on target with my fitness and health goals. Timed nutrition is a meal plan designed by super trainer Autumn Calabrese. It goes right along with her 80 Day Obsession program. Basically, she uses the fixate containers (same ones from 21 Day Fix) and times them out perfectly to give your body a perfect balance of macronutrients throughout your day. You time out your meals perfectly around your workouts each day to get the most out of them. This system takes a lot of planning and prep, but it works! I feel great when I eat this way and I’m hardly ever hungry! I eat 6 meals a day timed out every 2.5 - 3 hours. There is a formula to figure out which meal plan bracket you belong in. You can decide to eat in “weight loss” mode (if your goal is weight loss) or “maintenance”( if your goal is to keep the same weight). Then it tells you how many servings of each food group to have each day and when to eat them! Here’s a typical day for me on this plan. I am on plan A.  During the school year, I obviously wake up much earlier so my meals are a little more spaced out and start earlier, but you get the picture 😊. 

Meal prep

I am by no means an expert, but I have been meal prepping much longer than I’ve been doing timed nutrition. Being prepared for your week with healthy food and options on hand and ready to go is so important! I love these containers that segment everything. This is an example of my preworkout meal. I buy sprouted grain bread. 

I get mine at Aldi. It is recommended on this program. I also buy lunch meat that has no preservatives or added sugars. I like this one I also get this at Aldi (I’m pretty much an Aldi lover people!) I put a little mayo on my sandwich (I use as my tsp. of healthy fat). I do make my own mayo. I learned how to make my own mayo a few years ago when I completed the Whole 30 Challenge. It’s a cleaner version and tastes so good! I got this version from a blog found through Pinterest (Click here). Tastes so good! The last little trick on my preworkout meal is my ranch next to my veggies. I use Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt is an approved protein on 80DO. I just use a little less meat and add a little Greek yogurt with some ranch spices so I can enjoy my veggies 😋. 

I start the program on Monday! I will continue to update you on my progress and meals! 

Thanks for reading 

PEACE

~Shelly