Morning Meeting

Morning meeting is traditionally done right at the start of the day. In reality, it doesn’t always happen that way, but, for me, I like starting the day off on a positive, calm note. Most years, we do our morning meeting after our morning work since I’ve often had students trickling in. I want to ensure each student is present in our meeting, as much as in my control. We all have different routines in our day, so find the time that works best for you.

I call students down to the rug that’s central for our instruction. I like to have the rug as our home for meeting and for most whole group instruction. Us sitting together, in a much smaller space, just helps with the close-knit feel I’m looking for. I have my students sit around the rug, forming a large, often misshapen, oval. This makes it possible for students to easily make eye contact with each other. It also makes it easier for students to realize that their attention should be on the speaker, and not with me. I also like to give my students assigned spots for morning meeting. I find that this makes our movement quicker. It also allows me to create some key student partnerships. If I have a student that doesn’t seem to be building relationships as easily, I can put them with a student I think would mesh well with them. Or. I can put students that need some visual reminders in key locations around the oval.

Components of Morning Meeting

There are 4 components to the traditional morning meeting: Morning message, greeting, activity, and share. Some programs may vary from these 3 routines slightly, but these tend to be the most common.

Morning Message

The first part of our morning meeting is the morning message. I use my Daily Schedule & Morning Message to display our day’s schedule, our student of the day, and the morning message. Our morning message gives students a look at our day and what they can expect. I let them know key changes in our regular routine. I also use this time to give praise for yesterday, or something I’m hoping to reinforce today.

Greeting

The next morning meeting component is the greeting. The purpose of the greeting is to make every student feel acknowledged and welcomed into the classroom. Each student is greeted by at least one other person in the classroom. The greetings we use change throughout the year. We start out with a simple Good Morning, Name. I also try to incorporate “hello” in other languages, especially those native to my students and their families and others I think it’s great for them to know. These are the versions of hello I typically use in my classroom:

Spanish: Hola!

French: Bonjour!

German: Guten tag

Japanese: Konnichiwa

Hawaiian: Aloha

I would encourage you to incorporate languages important to your students and their families. You can ask students to be expert pronunciation guides, or utilize Google or Alexa to help support you. Even if your pronunciation isn’t spot on, students will appreciate the attempts to make their home language feel present in the classroom.

Another aspect of our greeting is often a handshake or a high five. I like to do the handshake so we can talk about the norms of handshakes and practice making eye contact while shaking hands. Of course, there’s many other ways to incorporate a greeting into your morning meeting. You can do a different one every day, or have a large repertoire you spiral through.

Looking for more morning meeting greeting ideas? I have 15 Morning Meeting Greetings in one easy to use, black and white download. Fill out the form below to have it sent to you straight away.

Activity

A group activity of some sort is often included, especially if you’re following a specific morning meeting format from a specific program. This tends to be the aspect that I struggle to fit in most days. Our day is so crunched for time. And while I believe in the power of morning meeting, I just struggle to find more time to include team building activities. I do try and incorporate them some at the beginning of the year, when we’re really trying to build relationships with each other. I also try to utilize days before and after breaks or field trip days, where are schedule is already awry, to incorporate activities.

Share

The last component of most morning meetings is the share. Like everything else, it can look many different ways. It’s an opportunity for students to share with others. If we have time, often at the beginning of the year, or when our schedule is otherwise interrupted, I incorporate a more broad share. Some programs call this sharing the “news”. I also try to include this on Mondays so students can share about their weekends if they would like. I call it just “share” and students can share anything they would like. This is when I also allow my students to opt-out and they can pass when it’s their turn.

Most days, our morning meeting wrap up is our Question of the Day. I first started implementing Question of the Day as my share routine with my Kicking off a Great Year unit. I use the scaffolded question cards to introduce restating the question with our acronym PQA (Put the Question in the Answer) alongside our student interviews. You can see more about this in my post Ideas to Teach Students to Restate the Question. We do a few cards whole group, and then I split students up into small groups to read and respond to cards as they get to know each other. This is also when I introduce expectations around someone else speaking.

After we use the scaffolded question cards in small groups, I choose a card a day to do during morning meeting. Sometimes we even do a couple once students have become pretty quick with it. Students read aloud the question on the card and respond in a complete sentence while restating the question in their answer. If I’m teaching first grade, I use the scaffolded cards for several weeks. But, most of my time has been in third grade and I’m able to move to the non-scaffolded cards pretty quickly.

Once I started implementing this routine, it became abundantly clear that our morning meeting was the perfect place to practice restating the question. Before students should be expected to use it in their writing, they have to be able to do it orally. By establishing the expectation during morning meeting that students answer every question in complete sentences with a restatement of the question, it becomes much more seamless during the rest of the day. Students also build so many other oral language skills during this time as well. They work to answer different types of questions, give answers in compound and complex sentences, and generate complete thoughts.

This year, in addition to using the question cards from Kicking Off a Great Year, I’m also going to implement a digital Question of the Day.

Question of the Day

Question of the Day is just that: a daily question prompt. It’s designed with morning meeting in mind. Students are given a question to respond to in a complete sentence. At the beginning of the year, the questions focus on getting to know students. They answer questions about themselves, their families, and their likes and dislikes. It’s designed for students as young as first grade, but can easily be used with 3rd and 4th graders!

A variety of question types are included to give students practice answering different types of questions and restating the question in different ways. When a new question type is given, students are given response frames for several days. After, the support is removed and students are expected to generate the complete sentence independently. With my third graders, I will likely move away from scaffolded questions pretty quickly in the year, as long as my students demonstrate their readiness. I find that at the beginning of the year, my third graders always struggle with this routine because the expectation hasn’t been there, previously. After a few weeks, it becomes second nature to them. I intentionally built the questions to begin with simple sentence responses, and to longer responses requiring details and/or justification. Students get specific practice with and and because.

Question of the Day is provided in 3 formats: Powerpoint, Google Slides, and a PDF. My hope is that this enables anyone to use it regardless of the digital compatibility with your device.

200 different questions are included, along with an editable template in Powerpoint and Slides. With 200 given prompts, there are extras included for you to swap things out if you’d like. Have a special program and want to incorporate it? The editable template makes it easy to create your own!

“What are two things you saw at the museum yesterday?”

“Name two animals you saw at the zoo.”

These are just two examples of questions you might use as your Question of the Day to connect with a special event. The power Once students understand the expectations around Question of the Day, it’s easy to incorporate different opportunities with it. Rather than having each individual student share orally for the whole class, students can share privately with a partner with a few sharing aloud. Or, students can be broken up into groups to each share with just a few key students sharing orally.

It’s also easy to incorporate written responses with morning meeting Question of the Day. Students can write sentences on their dry erase board, a Post-It, or index cards. With the sentence frames displayed, students are then just responsible for encoding the words specific to their response. This is perfect written practice for young students to apply what they’ve been learning. It can be incorporated during morning meeting time, or even as a precursor during morning work. Obviously, adding the writing component can extend the time needed, so I would pick and choose when to include it. With that said, it’s valuable practice to apply what’s been rehearsed with a partner orally into writing and is exceptional practice for young students.

Take a closer look at my Question of the Day unit in my TpT store.

Have questions about morning meeting or question of the day? Leave them in a comment below!

The post Build Oral Language Skills with a Morning Meeting Question of the Day appeared first on Tales from Outside the Classroom.

What is Interactive Modeling?

In short, interactive modeling is the procedure you use to teach your students classroom procedures and routines. It’s a process of modeling and practicing that makes the expectation and procedure crystal clear. The same seven-step process can be used for teaching virtually any procedure and routine. The simple steps are outlined below:

1. Name the procedure you will model and why it’s relevant.
2. Model the procedure exactly as you expect students to do it. Don’t describe it. Just model.
3. Ask students what they noticed. I usually ask students to give me one detail they noticed and then move on to another volunteer. You may have to do a bit of prompting until students get used to describing it. I also sometimes explicitly state something students aren’t identifying on their own.
4. Invite one or more students to model the procedure. This is a great opportunity to bring some eyes to students that thrive with positive attention and seek attention in unwanted ways.
5. Again ask students to describe what they noticed. Restate the specific components that you expect to see.
6. Have all students model while you observe.
7. Provide feedback explicitly stating the expectations and give positive reinforcement for those expectations. Use this time to gently redirect any missteps.

That’s it! For many procedures, the entire process only takes a few (3-4) minutes. It’s important to remember that you don’t expect students to master every routine and procedure the first time you do it. The next time that procedure or routine comes around, begin with asking for a model to demonstrate the procedure. By revisiting it, you have the opportunity to reinforce what your expectations are while reminding students what each of the components are. Your model and practice routine gives students positive feedback as they’re learning and helps establish the routine in students’ muscle memories. When I revisit it, we jump right into step 4 so it’s even quicker than the first time. It’s rare that I need to be the model again as there’s typically a student that remembers the expectations well and is a great class model.

Classroom Procedures to Model

I now hold the belief that anything and everything should be modeled in the classroom. Every movement. Every tool that is used. Everything. The time you spend modeling in the beginning saves you so much time and energy throughout the year! Here’s a list of some of the procedures I typically model in the beginning of the year. You can also download a pdf of the List of Classroom Procedures to Teach.

Why is Interactive Modeling so Effective?

The steps of interactive modeling include explicit instructions, visual models, positive reinforcement, student engagement, and immediate assessment and feedback. You’re able to address misconceptions immediately. Interactive modeling also gives you the opportunity to give positive attention to individual students that thrive on class attention. The change in my classroom from utilizing interactive modeling was astounding. The problem with my students’ lack of procedure following had been me all along!

Interactive modeling is a component of the Responsive Classroom approach. You can read more about interactive modeling on Responsive Classroom’s posts. You can also read more of my posts on Classroom Management and you can also see all of my Classroom Management products.

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Build Your Classroom Library Early

I started purchasing books when I was in college. The Scholastic Warehouse Sale was in my area so I picked a few up there each year. I looked at thrift shops and resale stores. I purchased a few new books when I’d see them at Target or whever. As I discovered authors and fell in love with them, I bought a few of their books. I purchased many of my Chris Van Allsburg and Patricia Polacco collection many years ago, because I knew I wanted their books, and I’ve only continued to expand it. I wanted to have a decent sized library for my first classroom, and I knew I couldn’t afford to stock it straight out of the gate, so I bought a small amount of books each year so I could gradually add to my collection.

Once a teacher actually suggested that I not buy books because I wouldn’t know the grade level I’d teach.  My library is non-grade specific.  I keep most of my library out regardless of my grade-level for that year.  As a teacher that’s looped, I’ve kept that same library for first through third grades with my students.  There are a few dozen books I put away for lower grades and take out for older grades, but by in large, a good book is a good book and grade level doesn’t matter a ton.  Whether I’m using them as mentor texts for me, or as self-selected options for my students, I want my library to offer a wide variety of texts and levels.

Don’t Be Afraid of Used Books

As I mentioned, I’ve purchased many second-hand books, especially when I was just starting out, or when I’ve changed grade levels.  I look at the books anytime I’m in a thrift store like Goodwill and Salvation Army.  I’ve used local library books sales to buy books.  I’ve also purchased books from retiring teachers and garage sales.  I have also happily accepted, and purchased, used books from friends as their kids have grown. My local used bookstore has been a great resource to pick up some new additions- especially the most popular books that tend to get donated when children have grown out of that series.  People have also had a ton of success at Half-Price Books; there’s just not one near me.  I’ve also had pretty good luck buying “lots” on Ebay.  People list a collection of texts by a certain author or in a certain series for a decent price.  I got a bunch of Goosebumps books and a collection of Berenstain Bears books this way. Used books are an affordable way to add to your library.

Get Support from Others

The single biggest way I’ve funded my classroom library is through support of family, friends, and strangers.  I’ve had 4 successfully funded DonorsChoose projects for books for my library.  I think of a need in my library, research books to fit the collection, and write a DonorsChoose project and explain that need.  Many people love supporting projects for books.  From graphic novels to intentional multicultural texts, the diversity of my library is due to these projects.  Read my post on Getting Started on DonorsChoose for information on using it for your classroom’s needs.  I’m happy to share ideas for getting books from DonorsChoose, as well.  Send me a message with what your idea is, and I’ll help you get started.

Within the last year I’ve also started utilizing Amazon WishLists to also add books to my classroom library.  I’ve posted on my social media pages about the specific books my students were requesting, added them to my list, and friends had them sent to me.  One of the nice things about Amazon lists is that they’re so quick.  I posted on my social media on Friday and had the books at my school on Monday!  Adding items to an Amazon Wishlist is just as simple as adding it to your cart!

Funding Your Classroom Library with Scholastic

Probably the most well known way to fund your classroom library is with Scholastic.  I’ve also used their services somewhat untraditionally.

I signed up with Scholastic Book Clubs many years ago.  I’ve been able to add books to my collection using bonus points.  But, my parents don’t utilize Book Clubs very often, so this wasn’t a quick strategy for me.  I invest in my library using my own money in September when bonus point offerings are their highest.  That helps me stockpile bonus points for the year that I use to get bigger ticket collections when I see them at good prices.  I watch items each month and look to see what books I can get for $2 or less and try to add to my collection then.

My favorite way I’ve used Scholastic is through their book coupons, however.  I buy them in September, again when bonus point offerings are their best.  I use the coupons to allow students to add books to their home collection, but then I also use a few of the remaining ones to add a few additional books to our library.  My friends have also helped me fund the purchase of the coupon books and that has helped this be an affordable option for me. My kids love receiving the free books, especially because they pick them out themselves.  And, I love that I can add books to our library really affordably.  Plus, the bonus points earned are amazing!

As I mentioned above, Scholastic Warehouse sales are great opportunities to buy books even cheaper than Scholastic typically offers. I was lucky that a Scholastic Warehouse was in the city that I attended college in so I was able to attend a few times.  If you’re not sure if there’s a warehouse in your area, you can look at the Scholastic Warehouse search.

Do you have other ideas for funding your classroom library?  I’d love to hear them in the comments below!  For more information on my classroom library, including what I use for affordable storage, check out my Classroom Library Organization post.  You may also like a few of my reading tees– perfect for wearing on dress down Fridays!

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Daily Schedule & Morning Message

Rather than having schedule cards on my board, or writing out the schedule each day, I project it using my Daily Schedule Display.  There’s also a space for a message, and I use that to put up our morning message and our Student of the Day.  It can be used to display information for the morning routine, spelling words, or anything you want students to see when they walk in.  When I was using schedule cards, there were so many days I would run out of time in the morning and not have the schedule reflect accurately and then spend time trying to explain to students what our day looked like.  With my digital schedule display, I just switch to the next day of the week, spend one minute typing our message, and we’re ready for the day.  And if I’m short on time and I don’t get to the message, it’s not a big deal.  My mornings are so much less stressful, and I save so much time.  I display it while my students come in and work on their morning work, and they know they’re responsible for reading it during that 10 minutes.  If there’s something specific I want to make sure they all know about, I take the second to share it before we formally start our day.

 

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One of my favorite additions to our routine this year is our digital schedule display. I’m able to project our days schedule, identify our Student of the Day, and give my kids and needed information in our morning message. This is so much faster for me than changing out cards or handwriting things. I love making our management digital. {Link in profile}

A post shared by Tessa-Tales Outside Classroom (@talestessa) on May 3, 2019 at 2:15pm PDT

I like to keep my schedule consistent on the side if it’s part of our regular routine- that way I don’t have to make changes to it as often.  The only changes I make are our special events or significant changes in our routine.  Otherwise, I just write anything in the message that students need to be aware of.  In this picture, we didn’t have coverage for gym so I let my students know there.  It’s so important to me that students know what to expect for our day and my Digital Schedule Display makes it easy.

My Digital Schedule Display includes 22 different backgrounds so you can use a different design per day, throughout the year, or just pick your favorite that you want to use all year long.  45 different predesigned schedule titles are included in 8 different colors to coordinate with the included backgrounds.  There are also blank schedule title cards included in every color so you can put whatever you may need, whether it’s a special event, or a time specific to your school.  There is a premade Powerpoint and Google Slides template included that you can use to quickly customize to what you need. I’ve also included a preview that explains how you can set it up in either version, and customize it.  You can also see the tutorial in the preview file on TpT. You can see my Editable Digital Schedule Display clicking the image below.

Digital Centers Rotation Powerpoint

The first digital management tool I made and used was my Centers Rotation Powerpoint.  It made such a difference in my morning stress and classroom routines that I knew I wanted to use more digital classroom management tools!  You can see a post about my Centers Rotation Chart Powerpoint by clicking this link.

I had been using centers cards, and again, changing them out every morning because my kids do different things throughout the week.  And again, didn’t get to it many mornings with before school meetings, or running late, or making copies, or whatever.  As much as I knew this was important to do before kids were in my classroom, there were more days than there should have been where everyone was waiting for me to make those quick switches.  When I made it digital, it took me a little bit of time to set up, but made such a big difference because it was ready to go each day.  I only need to click to display and I’m ready to go!  Plus, the students could see it so much better than on the small cards I had up on the whiteboard.

My centers rotations change throughout the week as students do a few different types of reading practice.  I use this Powerpoint and create a different slide per day, that way I can just go to the next one.  Once it’s set up, it’s ready to go until I need to make some changes.  I even use the same one the next year too since what I do doesn’t change too significantly.

My Centers Rotation Powerpoint Display includes 13 different options for background displays premade with the days of the week and a blank template you can use if you do a Day 1/Day 2 rotation or something else.  There are 53 different premade centers cards provided with a cute graphic representing the group and a title.  There are also 5 blank center cards templates with images so you can add text to fit your centers.  Because everyone titles their centers and rotations differently I really tried to provide customizable options so it can work for you.  The group names I included have numbers, colors, shapes, and letters as group names but are completely customizable as well.  I personally use animal names for my groups.  I also added video timers to the file so if you want to have the Powerpoint time and signal your rotations you are able to embed them as well.  I’ve really tried to include everything I could think of that people would find useful for their centers rotations.  I have also included a video tutorial showing you how you can set the Centers Rotation Powerpoint up yourself the first time using a blank Powerpoint, or by using the provided premade template.

You can take a closer look at my Digital Centers Rotation Chart by clicking the image below to see it on TpT.  You can also read the blog post dedicated to my Small Group Instruction Management to see a video tutorial on how it works.

Digital Timers

I love using my Alexa in my classroom as a timer and use it as a quick, hands-free solution when I need it.  But I often need a visual timer so my students can see the time remaining in a task.  Depending on what I need, I have two different systems: Video Countdown Timers and Powerpoint Countdown Timers.  Either timer is perfect to time and signal classroom activities.  Because they are visual, they are also perfect as accommodation tools for students with IEP’s or 504’s who need visual reminders.

Powerpoint Countdown Timers

My Powerpoint Countdown Timers are just as they sound- timers that countdown in Powerpoint.  Just choose the timer background you’d like and the length of time you need, launch the show, and go!  I love using them to display the time remaining in an activity in class like cooperative learning, group work, and Fun Friday. 

The timers include 10 different scenes in both holiday/seasonal themes and 4 general classroom backgrounds.  Each scene includes 16 different timers!  Timers above 15 minutes countdown by the minute until they reach 15, and then they count down by second.  Every time under 15 minutes counts by seconds. You can see all that’s included in my Powerpoint Countdown Timers by clicking the cover image below.

I also offer a free sampler in a Valentine’s Day theme.  It’s perfect for February, or really any time in the classroom. You can download my free Valentine’s Day Countdown Timers from my TpT store by clicking the cover below.

Embeddable Video Timers

I also have Video Countdown Timers that you can use in virtually any setting.  Each timer is its own standalone video that you can display on its own using your computer’s software.  But, because they’re their own video files, you’re also able to embed them within many other programs.  Many people like to use them in Powerpoints or Google Slides to time and signal their rotations.  I like that I can use them for anything I need.

My Video Countdown Timers have timers in 5 minute increments from 5 minutes to 60.  On any timer, it counts down by the minute above 15 before switching to countdown by second.  All timers less than 15 minutes countdown by second for the entirety. There’s also timers for 1, 2, and 3 minutes so you can use them for timed activities, transitions, etc. If there’s a timer I use frequently, I just leave it launched on my computer every day so that I can just click to start it when I’m ready.

You can see more information on my Video Countdown Timers by clicking the image below to head to TpT.

Digital Behavior Reward

Several years ago I had *that* group of kids.  The ones that you become very close to, the ones that challenge you to be a better teacher, the ones that make you try every trick in your bag looking for one that will be successful.  I was trying to think of how we could change our classroom reward system to something that gave them a bit quicker of a feel of success.  One that I could change up with some regularity to try to keep them invested and engaged.  But, most importantly for me, one that didn’t require me to spend a ton of time, energy, or classroom time to keep it going.

I created these Digital Behavior Incentive Rewards and I’ve used them ever since! I created them in Powerpoint to keep them digital.  Then, each time I want to change them to something different, I add the specific rewards we want to work towards earning, and that’s it- it’s ready.  There are 25 different scenes/settings giving you variety to use them all year long!  Each Powerpoint is set up with a few sample reward options but you are able to edit the text to whatever you need.  One way I like to use it is to have my students work towards a larger reward, so they need to earn 5 of something before we make it.  I also increase the likelihood of a specific reward being chosen by adding additional slides with that item.  The beauty of this program is that every time a specific number is chosen, a random reward slide is chosen!  This keeps the system engaging as students are excited to see what the chosen reward will be.  It’s a digital class marble jar!

I have two free versions of my Digital Behavior Reward Powerpoints available for free!  They’re a great sample of the larger product and allow you to try them out in your classroom.  My Back to School Digital Behavior Reward is perfect for those first few weeks of school as you want to reinforce expected routines and procedures.  Students work together to earn rewards, building a sense of community as they work together to achieve their goals.

You can download my Back to School Digital Behavior Rewards by clicking the image below and heading to TpT.

I also have a free Christmas Digital Behavior Reward perfect for December. By December, my kids are always needing something new and different to keep their excitement and interest.  In December, I change to this Christmas scene and change up the rewards we’re working towards.  This helps keep students invested and excited.  Because I use the system to reinforce student’s behavior, it helps keep students from getting as squirrely as they sometimes can be.  You can download my Christmas Digital Behavior Reward by clicking the image below and heading to TpT.

Digital Behavior Incentive Reward Powerpoints are available for the year if you like the samples.  You can see it on TpT by clicking the image below.

Random Student Name Picker

Have you ever had those times in your classroom where you wanted to choose a student randomly but weren’t sure how to best do that?  I’ve used the popsicle stick system.  I’ve used, and still use, my Alexa to choose students.  But since so many of my systems are digital, I wanted a digital one too.  There are ways to do this on Class Dojo and by using numbers on random number generators online.  I really wanted something I could set up with my students’ names though, as they get so excited to see it displayed on a screen.   This Random Student Name Picker works similarly to my behavior reward- you click the button and a random slide is chosen.  Once it’s set up for the year, you only need to update it with a student name so you’re set for the year.  It’s also a great companion to the behavior reward system.  You can use it to choose the student that will come up and choose the reward number. You can download it for free by clicking the image below.

Digital Classroom Management Bundle

I use many of these digital classroom management products every single day in my classroom. I have saved myself so much time using digital solutions in the classroom, and love sharing them with other teachers to make their lives easier.  I’ve bundled all of these products together to make it easy to purchase.  If a freebie is part of a larger product, it’s not in the bundle since the larger one is.  You can take a closer look at my Digital Classroom Management Bundle on TpT by clicking the image below.  Each of the other products is linked there so you can take a close look at everything, if you still have any questions on how each works.

I hope you’ve found a few new digital classroom management tools to save you time and energy in the classroom.  As teachers, we need those routines that make our lives easier!  You can see other Classroom Management posts here.

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Classroom Library Storage

I need a large shelving system because I have so many books, and already knew I needed that when I first put my library together. I already had several cheap bookshelves from Wal-Mart and have used them for various things over the years in my classroom, but knew they wouldn’t work best for me. Much of my collection is picture books and those don’t display well on the small shelves if you want the books to be cover side out. Picture books are generally too tall, as well. These shorter bookshelves are great for a chapter book collection where you want the books facing spine side out and I have seen some great libraries where they’ve been utilized.

I use the Kallax system from IKEA for my bookshelves and I love them. I bought the Glossy White because they’re easy to wipe down when they get dirty and they just look better over the years. Mine still look great and I’ve had them for 6 years. I’ve wanted to try them out as a dry erase board as well, but haven’t been brave enough! I’ve used two of the two shelf sets and that helps me create a corner with existing furniture I’ve had. That doesn’t fit all of my books but in my current classroom I do have four built in bookshelves and I use two of them and a ledge for student selection.

I use Sterilite dish pans to store my books in on the shelves. I buy them in store at Wal-Mart and they have them listed online for cheaper than Amazon. I buy them in two different sizes and in both black and white. The black and white goes with my color scheme, but the main reason I buy both is to differentiate between fiction and non-fiction. My fiction texts go in the black bins, but the non-fiction goes in the white. Since fiction and non-fiction are organized separately in a library, this is my way of doing it in mine. The 12 qt. bins fit well inside the slots. The 18 qt. bins fit as well but are very tight on the sides. I use those on top and that’s where I store my picture books, or when I have too many books to fit in the smaller bins.

The bins make it easy to store picture books so their covers can be seen as students go through them. They can hold a ton of books and can be picked up and moved if needed. I always prefer to have books cover up as much as possible.

The bins also work well for chapter books stored vertically. The covers can be seen as a student flips through the books, but the it’s also pretty easy to see the spines and find books that way as well.

Book Organization

I organize my fiction books based on author, similar writing styles, and genre. I find this helps students in choosing books, learning new authors, and finding new series they may enjoy. I don’t use a hard and fast system for this, and essentially just started sorting books into bins as I came across them in ways I thought they may fit. Books are also similar levels in each bin. While it’s not precise, and I don’t use or believe in organizing a library based on level, if a student enjoyed and was successful with one book from the bin, they would likely be successful with another from that bin. When students are looking for a new book to read, they often gravitate towards specific bins that they’ve previously found books they like and organizing this way gives them an easy way to find more books.

This basket features some authors that write with animal characters. It’s organized by author so it’s possible that one of the books in here wouldn’t have an animal character, but they all do. This bin includes the If You Give A series by Laura Numeroff, the Scaredy Squirrel series be Melanie Watt, the farm series (does it have a series name?) by Doreen Cronin, and the Skippyjon Jones series by Judy Schachner.

I have all of my mystery series stored together in two bins. These include Cam Jansen, Horrible Harry, Nate the Great, Encyclopedia Brown, and the Hilde Cracks the Case series that’s just come out as part of the Branches Scholastic series. I have another bin that has the entire A-Z mysteries collection along with a few of the Calendar mysteries. These are just separated this way because I have so many books from the same author. Even though they’re chapter books, I have them in the large bin because I have so many of them. Most of my chapter books are stored spine side up so the kids can quickly find the series they’re looking for.

I have my non-fiction books organized by genre or topic since that’s similar to how it is in the library. So, my folk tales and fables are in the non-fiction section as are Magic School Bus despite neither truly being non-fiction. This bin is my animal bin and is probably the single biggest category of books that I have. I also have a bin for biographies, a section for poetry, and have seasonal bins.

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Sometimes I struggled to identify what books went together in non-fiction but ultimately settled on categories that somewhat made sense to me. So, space, Earth, and weather are in one bin together, whereas places are in another bin on their own. Short of organizing according to the Dewey Decimal System, which often doesn’t make sense to me, I don’t think there’s any one way it should be done.

In an ideal world I’d have every bin labeled by it’s author or category. And my first year in my classroom I did. But I have had to rearrange bins over the last few years, and I’ve cycled some books in and out- especially as I looped with the same group of kids from 1st to 3rd. So not every bin gets labeled, and books don’t always get returned to the spot they’re supposed to. But I don’t stress it. And my type A personality doesn’t get too bothered by it unless it’s a big mess.

A few times a year I’ll choose a few students that know our classroom library well to go through bins and adjust books into their correct bins and leave a pile for me to do that they’re unsure of. This helps and keeps me from spending too much time on it. As I add in books during the year, I also go through that bin and move anything that needs to be moved. This takes just a second and helps keep it from becoming a large task at any one time.

I also use checkout sticks for my students. Each student gets two and they place them in the bin of the books they’ve chosen. When they return their book they get their stick back. I wish I could tell you that this has solved all of our problems on what books go where, but it doesn’t. But it does help give my kids a bit of accountability with making sure they’re returning in order to take a new one. I have my book checkout sticks as a free download in my newsletter exclusive library. To download them, click the image below, sign up, and then look for the login details in your email just after. There’s also several other items available and I’m working to add a lot more.

During the year I add new books on a fairly regular basis. Typically these are ones I’ve gotten from Scholastic book orders but they also may be from friends, bookstores, Ebay, or Donors Choose projects. I try to show my kids the new books so they get excited about them and look for them in our classroom library. I’ve found that spending a few minutes highlighting new books helps them get chosen quickly and not looked over in the mix. I also added these “new book” tags into the bins when I added the books. I’d take them out when I remembered (I do a lot intentionally and precisely, can’t you tell?) or when I had new books to add.

This has helped my kids find the books that are added a little more easily. It’s also nice to bring attention to a bin that maybe hasn’t been getting as much. I created mine quickly one morning and just printed them on Astrobrights paper and laminated them. But, I’ve made new book tags that match the book checkout sticks so you can download these from my free library as well! Just click the image below to head to my newsletter sign up to access them.

I hope this post has helped give you some ideas on how to organize your classroom library. It’s not a quick or easy task, but it pays off when students are excited about reading and use your library often! You may also be interested in my Reading teacher tees. I love to wear these to school on Fridays! I love to showcase my love of reading to try and build the idea, in my students, that adults read and enjoy reading on a regular basis. Click here to check out my Reading tees.

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