Awesome Classroom Library

Last summer, I spent a week rearranging my classroom library. I had accumlated close to 1,000 books and had always kept my picture books in baskets labeled with genre. My chapter books were arranged in the same way as the picture books except that they had their same shelf where they were kept with their spines facing out.

Then a friend of my introduced me to an amazing classroom. Beth Newingham is a third grade teacher who shares her classroom with another amazing teacher. They are frequently featured on Scholastic's website. She has tons of AhhhhMazing ideas and is sooooooo creative!

The first thing I stole borrowed from her was her classroom library organization. My is not nearly as detailed as her and does not have near as many categories but it is very organized. And I could probably find any book I need at any time.

All of my books are in baskets. Then nonfiction picture books are in green baskets. Picture books are in blue. My chapter books are split between yellow (series) and red baskets. Needless to say that summer I bought every Dollar Tree in South Georgia out of baskets. I kid you not! I went to 7 different stores in 5 different towns.

She has all of her labels on her site. But I changed many of them to suit my needs. A few of them are the same, but most were adapted for my needs.


Check out her classroom library site and get your library labels so you can have an Awesome Classroom Library too!