Organizing Your Classroom Library–Spotlight Blogger Michelle from Apples & ABC’s

Welcome to Raki's Rad Resources for our latest Spotlight Blogger. My family and I are camping right now, and we are taking a break from all screens in an effort to recharge our batteries and get ready for the new school year. While we are gone, I hope you are enjoying the spotlight bloggers who have agreed to guest blog for me. Be sure to pin the posts you like, as the spotlight blogger with the most pins on their post will win a special prize! And then, please stop by their blogs and see all the awesome things they have to offer you.

Hello blog world!  It's Michelle from Apples and ABC's, and I am so excited to be guest blogging for Heidi! 

 

 

I want to share with you my process of organizing my class library.  I figure this is something we can all relate to, and organization is my main focus while getting ready to go back to school!  For some reason, my nemesis is trying to keep my class library organized.  I want to share with you the simples steps I took to organize my books.  Maybe some of you are like me and don't even want to get started on this project, but by the end you will see its easy!

 

Here is what my library looked like before I started organizing:

 

 

Basically, all of the books are in bins (supposed to be in bins) and the kids put them anywhere in a box.  I decided that I want to organize my books by category and try to keep certain books assigned to certain bins.  Is it possible?  We shall see!  :) 

 

The first thing I had to do was start sorting the books by similar topics.  I just starting making piles and as the piles grew, I made notes to myself of what each pile should be labeled as.

 

 

Some of the categories are: animals, Clifford, math, ABC books, ocean, winter...

 

 

After my books were sorted, I placed them in bins and added a post-it note to the outside so I could easily see what topic was in the bin.

 

 

I purchased these storage bins at Target.  I think they are $5 for 5 bins right now!

 

 

I made some labels on my computer and found clip art online to match the category (I am not putting them in my TpT Store because I am not sure of the TOU regarding random pictures I find online, but I will use them in my classroom).  I used these boarder details from Lakeshore to use as the background of my labels. 

 

...And here is the finished, ever so organized, product!

 

 

Thanks so much for having me Heidi!

~Michelle Griffo

Apples and ABC's