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If you’re like me, you probably have a summer classroom project. A summer classroom project is a project that takes up more time that you have to spare as a teacher during the school year but is fun and enjoyable to work on in your free time throughout the summer. It’s something that will bring you and your students joy when you all return to your classroom in the fall.
My summer project every year is always the same - I add to my classroom library! Throughout the summer, I gradually acquire books for my classroom library and brainstorm ideas to make my classroom library more functional and efficient. Today I’ll share just how I do that for those of you who are looking to create a classroom library from scratch or level up your current classroom library over the summer!
Now some of you might be thinking (or yelling at your screen) something along the lines of, “Girl, what are you doing?! You're a teacher on summer break. Rest! That’s what summer break is for!” right about now. For those of you who are thinking (or yelling) this, rest assured that I do enjoy my summer break and take time to relax! But you see, adding to my classroom library and finding small ways to improve it isn’t a task that I dread or one that feels tedious. I love doing it! If anything, it’s a bit of a hobby for me.
One of my favorite things about teaching is hooking young readers with a new favorite book! The quest to find those favorite books and highlight what makes them awesome in my classroom is a fun and challenging mission of my own making. So, how do I find and add books to my classroom library throughout the summer? I can’t wait to share, so keep reading!
How to Find New, Interesting Titles for Your Classroom Library
My number one resource for finding fresh, exciting new titles for my classroom library might surprise you. It’s TikTok. More specifically, the public school librarians on TikTok. I follow quite a few librarians on TikTok, and they have the best book recommendations! They not only give insight into what the most popular books currently are, but they also share information about what books continue to circulate no matter what their original publication dates were and give snippets of information that are useful for recommending books to students.
Like most teachers, I also get recommendations from fellow teachers, and I pay attention to the Sequoyah Book Awards Masterlist each year. I also listen to what my students who are avid readers are into and ask them questions about their favorites. They are always eager to share their favorites with me and their classmates!
When I find a title that I know I want for my classroom library, I add it to my Amazon wish list. A few parents may purchase several books from my list over the course of the year but, honestly, the main reason I create the list is to have something that I can refer back to when I’m out and about looking through books for sale. That way, if I pick up a book that I think looks familiar, I can pull up my list and see if the book in my hand is on my wish list. While I could make this list in the notes app on my phone, being able to see the price of the book on Amazon versus the in-store price as well as a photo of the book to help jog my memory is extra helpful.
Purchasing Books for Your Classroom Library
Buying books for your classroom library can get pricey quickly! When I’m out and about looking for books to purchase, I’m not shopping in Barnes & Noble (although I do love Barnes & Noble and pretty much every bookstore ever). Instead, I’m either at a library sale or a thrift store.
Library Sales
My favorite cost-efficient way to purchase books for my classroom library is by attending library sales. For those of you who live in Oklahoma, like I do, the Friends of the Metropolitan Library sale is amazing and my favorite source for books - so much so that I make it one of my main book-shopping events for the year and plan ahead for the sale.
The Friends of the Metropolitan Library book sale is a bring-your-own-bag sale that takes place at the State Fair Grounds in Oklahoma City. Books can be purchased as little as 50 cents per book in the main sale area. However, there is a “better books” room that I recommend visiting first before you go into the main sale area. The books in that room start at $1 but average $2 - $3 per book, and many have the protective plastic library book jackets already on them.
The last time I attended the sale, which was in February, I walked away with 25 books and was even able to find several middle-grade books in Spanish, which was a wonderful score for my ESL students!
The Metropolitan Library System of Oklahoma County has a Facebook page you can follow to get upcoming sale information. Their next sale will be this October!
If you are looking for a smaller book sale with a similar selection of titles and pricing, the libraries that are a part of the Pioneer Library System in Oklahoma have their own annual sales as well. At these sales, you will typically pay $5 per bag of books. The timing of each sale depends on the individual library, so check their online calendars.
Thrift Stores and Online Stores
Maybe book sales aren’t your thing. Maybe you prefer to buy a few books here and there at your leisure, which is something I do as well. If that sounds more appealing to you, thrift stores are your friend. Goodwill is a great resource for finding modern, popular books. I rarely pay more than $2 per book and tend to shop there if a book in a particular series is worn out and I need a replacement copy.
SecondSale.com is an online store that I will visit if I need a few specific books and don’t want to wait to find them at a sale or Goodwill. They specialize in used books and have a buy three get one free deal for books that are under $5.
Books listed on Ebay often have free shipping and are well-priced, and there are many more options available like Half Priced Books, The Book Outlet and Thrift Books. Half Priced Books also has a donation program. Click here to access their online donation request form.
*None of the above organizations/companies paid me to hype them up. I’m just a fan!
Classroom Library Organization
Now that you have your books, or maybe you’ve had them for years but are looking to organize your books and give your shelves a nice little makeover, lets talk classroom library organization!
If you are a secondary teacher, you truly do not need anything fancy to get smart-looking classroom shelves that are organized and functional. You don’t need bright, colorful book bins (although I understand why elementary teachers need and love them). That being said, if you want to add ALL of the color and decoration that you possibly can and go all out, please do! I just don’t want anyone to think that they have to in order to create an awesome classroom library. When you get down to it, you only need the following for your classroom library:
Your books (obviously)
A few bookshelves.
A set of genre shelf labels.
A label maker.
A book inventory and management system for tracking your books as the leave and return to your room.
Shelving For Your Classroom Library
I didn’t buy my classroom library shelves, and you most likely don’t need to buy any either. Four of the five bookshelves in my classroom were there when I moved in. The fifth, I got as part of a grant. I use an old (but cute) TV stand that I moved into my room to store my class novel sets and to feature the newest books to arrive in our classroom! Of all of my bookshelves, only one was new, and again, I didn’t pay for it out of pocket. Many schools have some kind of storage area, so if you move into a new room and find yourself without shelves, you may be able to find some in storage or upcycle a piece of furniture, like my TV stand turned book storage and display.
Organizing Your Classroom Library Books
I organize my classroom library books by genre, and I alphabetize them by the author’s last name within each genre. Each of my books has a label on them that I made using my favorite label maker indicating what genre each book belongs to. (You can see the labels on the book spines in the photos below.) These particular labels have a plastic coating on top, which protects the lettering from rubbing off. I love my Brother label maker, and I’d also love to take credit for finding it, but the truth is that my son did. He’s a big fan of label makers. He gets it from his mom!
The genre labels that I use for my shelves are available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. They add a fun pop of color to each shelf and include a definition of each genre to help students identify the different genres while browsing. Being able to move directly to a shelf full of books in a genre that they know they love saves so much time and makes the browsing process more enjoyable for students! Click here to purchase!
I laminated the labels and, in the past, taped them to my shelves, but I quickly realized that removing the labels and taping them over and over again every time I need to rearrange is frustrating. So instead of taping them, I now display them with table number holders which are easy to move when I’m rearranging and they add a little extra pizzazz!
Classroom Library Inventory and Management
Finally, you need a system for tracking which books are in your classroom and which are checked out. I use Booksource Classroom for my inventory and management system. I’ve used their free account for three years, and I love it!
I explain just how my students and I use Booksource Classroom for book-tracking along with the pros, cons, and lessons learned in my post Creating A Classroom Library Checkout And Return System That Works For You! "Check it Out" - pun absolutely intended!
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