Are you tired of books scattered all over your classroom library? Would you like the kids to find the books easily? An organized bookshelf with classroom library labels may be the answer.
Classroom Library
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Rotating Books
Before we think about organizing our books for kids to find, let’s talk about the number of books that should be in your collection. You might want to try book rotation. Sometimes less is more. For example, the Christmas books don’t need to be on the shelf in May.
Organizing and Labeling Books
Ok, now we are ready to organize our books. I actually like to do steps 1-3 with the kids. It’s a great lesson in categorization and helps build library ownership.
- Take all the books off the shelf and make piles. Start with broad categories such as animals, seasonal, etc.
- Look at your big piles and see if you have multiple (5 or more) books on a certain topic. For example, when looking at your animal pile, you might see that you have 10 dinosaur books, 8 penguin books, and 12 zoo animal books. These can now become their own piles.
- You are ready to put books in bins.
- Now, it’s time to add book bin labels. You can laminate the labels or use clear adhesive pockets (my preference.)
Get Your Classroom Book Labels
I have a set of 3×3 labels for you to use to identify your newly organized bins. They were created with the early childhood library in mind. You will find labels for the most common categories of books you would find in an early years’ classroom.
They also aren’t ink suckers. The 114 labels have a white background and a simple black border. Many of them contain a full-color image.
Image labels included: each season, holiday, animals (dinosaurs, penguins, bears, zoo, farm, ocean, jungle, pets), alphabet, counting, colors, vehicles, construction, planes, trains, sports, space, weather, plants, all about me, pirates, fairy tales, school, math, science, world, art, music, patriotic, award winners, class favorites, gingerbread, robots, fire safety, dental health, and community helpers
Text only labels included: Pete the Cat, Elephant & Piggie, Arthur, Dr. Seuss, Llama Llama, Clifford, Curious George, Eric Carle, Bernstein Bears, Junie B. Jones, The Magic Tree House, and Nate the Great.
*Due to copyright reasons, images could not be put on specific book series. You could cut out a picture image to add to the label though.
Leveled labels included: A-Z (small star on each) and 1-28 (just numbers with no image)
There are also blank labels that you can edit.
Get your set! Just click the buy now button below. You get all 114 labels for just $2.50.
*Please review terms and conditions before purchasing HERE.
Teaching Good Care of Books
Now the important piece in all of this, it to show the kids how the library is organized and teach classroom library expectations. This is the secret sauce in keeping the library tidy.
Here are some tips.—>Teaching Kids to Take Care of Books
Books for the Library
Need book recommendations to fill all those new book bins? We have lots of awesome book lists for kids.—>Check Out the Book Lists
You are ready to go. I want to see your newly organized library when it is ready. Snap a picture and send it me at jodie@growingbookbybook.com or share on our Facebook page.
Katie says
Do you have tips on how to get the books back into the right tub? I have labeled sections but the kids don’t put them back right. I teach 3-5 year olds with and without special needs.
Jodie Rodriguez says
Great question Katie! I’ll add that to the post. I like to label the books that go in each bin. Washi tape or color label stickers work well. Coordinate the color or icon that you put on the book to the bin. Then, it’s all about teaching the proper procedure for looking at the book and finding the corresponding bin. Practice, practice, and more practice for little ones. Another option for the very young would be to have a big general return bin and then have an assistant or volunteer sort the books at a later time. Hope that helps.