Diversifying Your Classroom Library

5/5/2021

Dear Teacher,

It is finally May and you know what that means right? Planning for Back-to-School is in full swing. Since the end of March, my school has been preparing for the return of students full time in the fall. This means I finally get to decorate the classroom I moved into this year.

First stop... the heart of my classroom. The classroom library.

Organizing Your Library

Prior to getting out the books for my library, I find a way to first house them all. To me, organization and eye appeal are essential. This area of my classroom must be inviting and enticing. I want my students to gravitate to this section of the room. This is where I want them to feel most at home at. I want this to be their safe place.

I use a ton of Ikea furniture in my room. It holds up well to older elementary, the price is affordable, and it is easy to organize. Here is a link to my favorite pieces: Small Cube Shelves and Tall Cube Shelves.

I also ordered a bench from Wayfair because you now.... flexible seating.

I pulled in my crate seats from 4th grade to form a large ottoman and walla! A cozy area for a library that just needs books.

Finding the Right Books for Your Kids

Student voice is very important to me. One of the first things I do at the start of the year is ask my students to complete a Google Form with their list of 10 (maximum 20) books that they want to read. I ask them to think about books they wanted to check-out last year but couldn't because it was so popular, is unavailable in our school library, is a new book, or something else. These are the books I want in my library. I then use this to check and see if I have these in my classroom library. If not, I want to find a way to add these to my library this year.

Next, when the scholastic flyer comes out each month, I ask my students to create a top 3 list of the books they want. I again, look to my library to see if we have these. If not, I pick the top 3 for our class and order them as a fun surprise.

Lastly, I have a book request card on my bulletin board. Here, students can request a book we do not currently have that they would like in our library. I look at these often to see what else we can add. My library is always growing as a result. We have about 300 books currently and our goal is to have at least 500!