Student Centered Library

This year I tried something a little different in my library. I used to use a sun tent as my reading center. However, when I moved to my new school, I wasn't sure if I would be allowed to use it. Sadly, this year, there is no reading tent (tear) yet I continue to tell my students to go to the reading tent during centers time. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Instead, I decided to try something new with my students. These bins used to be painted with crabs, fish, and turtles (my old reading groups) but I re-painted them, gave them snazzy new labels, and made them a little more student centered. Now, these are my students' go to books every time they come to the library center. They can "like" books and put them in the Recommended Books bin. They can write their own books, newspapers, or magazines and put them in the Student Authors bin, and I am in charge of the Seasonal Books bin. I use the wonderful dollar books from Scholastic to fill these up for each season throughout the year.

You may be wondering where I got these cool chair bins. Many moons ago, back when I was a sparky new teacher, I found them at Five Below. However, I have since hunted high and low for replacements and have come up dry. I'm sure you could use 3 crates tied together if you felt so inclined. The fabric bins inside came from the Dollar Tree and I'm pretty positive that they would fit in a crate, though I haven't tried it. Either way, just having these three bins in one form or another in your library center will be sure to spark their interest in reading and even writing. My personal favorite is the Student Authors bin. Some of my students actually write weekly editions of their own classroom newspaper and put them in there. I remember one headline Johnny Throws Rocks at Recess! I laughed pretty hard at that one. 

Here are the signs if you would like them:

 Student Authors and Recommended Books

Seasonal Books

Stay warm and happy reading!

-OneCrazyS

Classroom Library

Our move is COMPLETE (minus the unpacking of a million boxes). Thank goodness! Our new house is like our own personal gym complete with several flights of stairs. I should be in pretty good shape soon enough!

I am definitely excited to be in a new state, county, and school. Change is always a good thing in my world. I am even going to teach a fifth grade class this year! It will definitely be a different teaching experience but it should be tons of fun. I have to say that if I had to pick one thing that I will miss the most out of my old first grade classroom, it would be my library. My library was always something special. It was a place for students to sit down and get lost in a good book. For five years, my classroom library was in a tent. In fact it was in a sun tent (they are like half-tents that you take to the beach). It was something that new students were always excited to see. Here is my happy place:

I don't know what my new classroom will be like so my hopes of having a tent may be lost. However, I already have some new ideas! I just painted those bins in the back of the tent white. This year I will use them as bins for: Recommended Books, Seasonal Books, and Student Author Books.  I can't wait to get started! I know that we will have a great year!

-OneCrazyS