Part 4: Organizing my Classroom Library

So here is the beginning of my classroom tour. The only part of my classroom that is completed is my library. I will break down how I organize my classroom library for you.

How did you acquire so many books?
This is an important question because as we know, teachers don't make enough money to just go to Barnes and Noble and buy every book we want. I have received my books from multiple sources.

The first place I bought many of my books was from www.Scholastic.com. At scholastic, you can put out your monthly flyer and buy books for yourself, as well as parents can buy books. For every book purchased, you will earn bonus points. These bonus points can be used to buy books, cds, technology and a variety of teaching supplies and furniture.

The other place I bought most of my books for SUPER cheap was through book sales. Libraries across the country hold book sales once or twice a year to get rid of books that have been donated to them that they don't need. Many of these books are in just slightly used condition and there are a lot of great, high quality books. At my book sales in NH, the children's books are usually only 25 cents. You can find book sales in your area by going to www.booksalefinder.com.

The final place that I received some of my books was from a teacher that retired prior to me moving into her room. I recommend that you pay attention to anyone you might know that are retiring. Most teachers that are retiring do not take all of their books with them and they might be willing to give some to you.

How do you sort your books?
I sort my books through a variety of levels and subjects. Some of my books are sorted by author, such as: Dr. Seuss, Robert Munsch, Leo Lionni, Eric Carle, etc. Some of my books are sorted by title, such as: Magic School Bus, Clifford, Curious George, etc. I have many books sorted by theme, non-fiction and guided reading levels. To determine a books guided reading level, I used two different websites/apps. Book Wizard by Scholastic is very effective and just requires you to type in the title. You can find Book Wizard here: www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/ . I also used the app, "Level it." Level it allows you to just scan the barcode on the back of the book or manually type in the title. This app is still working on adding many titles, so there are some titles that cannot be found when you scan for them.

Where did you get your labels?
You can buy my labels in either zebra print (shown in my classroom) or in blue chevron print. Sadly, they will not be able to include the books by author or title because it is considered copyright infringement. However,  there will be blank labels for you to write them in. The next 5 people to follow my blog or leave a comment on my blog will receive their choice of my chevron or zebra library labels for free!

My zebra labels can be found here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Library-Book-Bin-Label-Zebra-Print-1389433

My blue chevron labels can be found here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Library-Book-Bin-Label-Blue-Chevron-1389328

Where did you buy your bins?

 These green and pink bins are from ReallyGoodStuff. You can find them in a variety of colors here:
http://www.reallygoodstuff.com/durable-book-and-binder-holders/p/160103/

Also, these bins are 20% off this weekend!

The top bins are from Lakeshore Learning, but I spray painted them turquoise. You can see my post about spray painting them here:
http://coordinatedclassroom.blogspot.com/2014/07/spray-paint-galore.html

The green bins are from the Dollar Tree. They are the perfect size for chapter books!

The pink bin with my reading buddies is from Walmart by Sterilite. The turquoise bin is from Target by Sterilite. The pink lap desk is from Michael's and will be used for our library center during learning stations. The white bins are from Walmart, also by Sterilite.

Any other questions? Post them here and I'll be happy to answer! :)

Enjoy  the sunshine,
Jessica

How to Design an Organized and Functional Classroom {Part 2}

In this Part 2 blog post in my organized and functional classroom series, I will display the scary BEFORE pictures of my new classroom. If you refer to my previous post, you'll see that I identified all of the areas in my classroom that I have to make sure I have when I am setting up my classroom.

These are the pictures I took when I came into my room this week. The position that I accepted is from a teacher retirement, so she left a ton of stuff behind for me, so I had to add on the extra step of sorting through all of her materials before bringing in my own belongings so I don't get overwhelmed. (Anyone else out there facing this same experience?) I have made a classroom map of what the general set up of my classroom will be and I have started to think about some projects I will want to do this summer for my classroom.

So here are the BEFORE pictures of my classroom...I've got a lot of work to do!

 

I have started sorting through all of the books and have started to get organized...you'll be able to hear about that project in one of my future blog posts! Make sure you follow me so you don't miss it! xo

2013-2014 Classroom Reveal and Tour!!

I'm so excited to share with you all that my classroom is officially complete!!! View my previous post to see what I was dealing with in my before pictures. Enjoy and please comment. I love feedback! :)

 This is my reading group area and my ABUNDANCE of counter and cabinet space. Can I say how much I LOVE my new room? The cloud heading on my cabinet is where my students "Hopes and Dreams" activity will go.

 

This is the view from one corner of my room. The buckets on each table are for their reading books. I got them at the dollar tree.

 

Another view!

 And another view!

 And another!

 

My desk area. You can see the top of my Target chair that I re-did with some stables and fabric from Jo-Anns that are all over Pinterest. I have my sharp and dull buckets for pencils, homework bin, homework folder bin and finished work bin. 

This is my morning meeting and whole group teaching area.

 Calendar area and whole group teaching area.

This is my classroom library. The square green bins are from the dollar tree. The bins to the bottom left are from Hobby Lobby and the bins on the bottom right are from Michael's.

 My cozy classroom library area.

My word wall. You can find these materials on my TPT store. :)

The cabinet inbetween my library and word wall are my math manipulatives.

 

Job chart and more views of my open concept school/classroom.

 Our learning objectives and how we get home board. You can find these on my TPT store too.

My kiddo's cubbies with their cuisenaire rods, tool kits, math reference journals, unfinished work folder and poetry binder. The buckets to the left are used to store my work stations (centers.)

Here's my desktop computer, hamper that is used as storage for big books and ottomans from Target for a quiet spot to read.

 

This board is where my work stations will be displayed. This is also my responsive classroom take-a-break/THINK chair for behavior. The bookcase with black paper holders will be holding my writing center as we finish the first six weeks.

Coat hooks with my NH giraffe license plates. These can be found on my TPT store and I can customize it for you with your own state license plate. :)

My quality work board. :)

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my classroom. Please check back for future posts about how I run work stations, and other aspects of my classroom. :)

2013-2014: Classroom Reveal...BEFORE!

Hi All! As I'm sure for all of us, I have been slaving away in my classroom for countless hours and days to get my classroom ready for those amazing firsties. I am in the home stretch now, considering I go back to school for professional development days on Tuesday. It's crazy how fast this summer went by.

Just to get you hyped about my classroom reveal of my finished product...scroll down to view the before pictures of my classroom. I teach in an open concept school, so in a very large space, is four first grade classrooms. Our classrooms are divided by bookshelves, dividers and other furniture. It poses some struggles with wall space and needing some place to hang all of our anchor charts, but I love the collaboration between classes.

Here's the before:

 

So after hours of tracking down the furniture that the janitors had to move to clean the carpets, my team and I started moving the ridiculous amount of furniture. After a few hours of moving furniture, the barriers were set up and I was left to work with this... view cluttered disaster below. :)

 

Just as all of you, I'm exhausted. However, I am loving how my classroom is coming out and I can't wait to share the finished product with you guys! :) 

Remember, my first follower gets to have 1 item from the TPT store for FREE! So click that follow button. :)

Classroom Tour 2012-2013....better late than never!

So as promised, here's my jungle/pink and green themed room. I should probably fill you in on one little detail...I teach in an open-concept school. For those of you who have never seen one, it is a very interesting space! There are no interior walls between classroom teams. So my second grade team shared one gigantic room that is divided by half moveable walls, bookshelves and tables. Some say that it must be distracting to everyone, but it is amazing how focused all of my students stay. It also creates a true team approach.

I didn't take too many before pictures, but here's what I have of what my classroom looked like when I first got here...

And here's what it looked like after so many hours of work..

 

This is where students enter the pod. The blue bulletin board starts the classroom of my co-worker. These are my student's mailboxes, coat hooks and supply cubbies. The monkey name tags came from the wonderful Dollar Tree. The green zebra fabric covers a small filing cabinet. 

 

This is standing in the back corner of my room looking in from my reading table. In the right corner is my desk and cabinets. The student tables surround my student's whole group instruction area with my calendar, schedule and ENO interactive whiteboard.

 

This is from the back corner of my room looking at my classroom library and hallway.

 

Sorry this one's blurry...I had to take them with my phone. That's the corner of my classroom where my desk and cabinets are. I share those cabinets with my co-worker.

 Homework folder bin, finished work bin, homework bin, sharp and dull pencil buckets. I got the, "Did you hit the target for top quality?" poster from One Extra Degree. You can get her poster for free at her teacherspayteachers store here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Top-Quality-Target-Writing-FREEBIE-205466

 This is my how we get home board. It's on the back of a file cabinet so I put the kid's names on magnets so I could easily move them. You can get this at my TPT store here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Transportation-Cards-Jungle-Theme-295371

 This is a closer view of my student's tables. The green buckets are from the Dollar Tree and the students keep their guided reading books and "just right" books in them.

 My teacher material cabinets and math center cabinet. I made the valance part of the curtains from fabric at Joann's Fabric. The green curtains are from Walmart. The green buckets are from Target (fabric bins), Dollar Tree (small plastic bins) and Walmart (big plastic basket.)

 My word wall and writing center. You can get the following materials at my TPT store by clicking below. Check them out!

Word Wall Title and Letters: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Alphabet-Jungle-Themed-Letters-Uppercase-and-Lowercase-together-311840

Jungle Birthday Train (updated now): http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jungle-Theme-Birthday-Train-UPDATED-311837

 Job Chart: The tree and title were from the Happy Helpers collection from Creative Teaching Press. The monkeys were from the Dollar Tree.

 This is my AMAZING new bookshelf for my classroom library. THANKS DAD! The buckets are from the Dollar Tree.

 My classroom library lounging area. I created the pillows and the mat for them to sit on. The ottomans are from Target. The carpet squares are from Target's dollar spot.

Sorry this one is dark. This is my guided reading area. This area was the first to get spruced up once I had a minute from the back to school crazy-ness.

I hope you enjoyed my classroom tour! Make sure to check back for my summer projects and my classroom tour for 2013-2014 in my new first grade class!

The first one to comment and follow my blog will get to pick something  for free from my TPT store. Do it! ;)