Classroom Library and Leveled Reading Book Bin Signs

Happy Sunday! It is such a beautiful day outside and yet I am stuck inside studying for my final grad course! Not my idea of fun! :)  So, I decided to take a short break (which has turned into 45 minutes...or longer) to post another little freebie that may help as you begin to prepare your classroom for a new year! I can't believe I just said that...yes it is that time again!

I am so excited about my classroom library this year. My aunt is a Scholastic Rep. and HOLY BOOKS...she just sent me eight boxes of new books WITH a leveled list attached! If you have ever leveled books, you know how EXCITED I am right now! Yes, she is the absolute best! Scholastic also has an amazing site for leveling texts. You can find that HERE! Trust me, this is a HUGE time saver.

On to organization. I have decided that I am going to organize my classroom library in several ways. In my book bin, I organize books by Guided Reading Level. The books located in the book bin are books that students are allowed to "check out" and take home for a night. The first thing that they do after they unpack each morning is trade their leveled book and take a new book for nightly reading. Once I determine their reading level (our district uses DRA2), I will allow them to go up/down one level. So  if a child tests on level 12, I will allow them to choose a level 12 along with a 10 or 14. This simply provides them with more book choices and allows for a challenge or easier read which is a nice mix. For some reason, these numbers tend to get a little confusing from time to time, so I level my books for the students by the Fountas and Pinnell Guided Reading Levels. For my youngsters, the "letter system" as they call it, proves to be much easier to understand. Along with the book bin, I have decided to sort my new books by genre, topics, authors, etc. These books will remain in the classroom and will also be used for AR. I am going to try a clothespin check-out system. I have never tried this before but have heard raves from many teachers. We shall see!

So...my excitement about my new books completely motivated me to create some new signs to go on my book bin. These signs are created for books leveled A-Z (Guided Reading Levels) but also include DRA levels and Lexile Levels. You can check those out HERE or by clicking on the picture below. Stay tuned for book labels by genre, author, etc. I am also excited about sharing pictures of my new classroom library one it is up and organized!