A Little Classroom Library Makeover!

Hello friends! It's Kelly from Love  to Teach A-Latte!
Do you have one of those projects you never got around to this year!? You know the project I'm talking about... the one you wanted to get done but just weren't sure how you wanted to take care of it? Then all of the sudden it's May and that project still isn't done! No!? Just me!? Well friends I finally got mine done! After a LOT of thinking, and talking with my students the actual project was pretty quick. I took care of it in a productive early morning! Whew!

All year I've been thinking about how to organize my classroom library. This was my first year in 3rd grade and I was really unsure how to change it up. I didn't think there would be a huge difference between a 2nd & 3rd grade classroom library, but I was wrong! Third graders grow so much as readers. They aren't as interested in those picture books that the second graders treasure. They want the newest and best chapter books. I had to make some big investments in books this year. Thank goodness for the Scholastic Warehouse sales! With my new books came a space problem and the kids were struggling to find what they wanted to read. Also many students didn't know what was available.

So here's where I started...

I had the picture books in color coded boxes. See the labels!?  However the deep baskets made it so hard to look through the books, and I was having an overflow problem as you can see...

Is this color orange, red, brown? Who knows!? What I do know is it needs an update!

The first step for me was to clean the shelves and then make the shelves more inviting. 

Solution: chevron contact paper! I LOVE this stuff!

You know that saying, "Measure twice, cut once"? Be sure to do that! The first shelf I finished had contact paper that was an inch short. Womp! Womp! So learn from me, measure twice & cut once!

The next big step is to peel back a small amount of the back corner and line it up well. Get the end of the contact paper lined up with the back & side of the shelf so as you peel it continues to spread out in a straight line. 

I peeled it SLOWLY as I went along, and I recommend you try it that way too. You can smooth it out as you go more easily and you're not dealing with a huge sticky piece of contact paper. Smoothing it out in small sections helped me because it created less of those air bubbles too. 

I covered 4 shelves that were about 48 inches long and used 2 rolls of contact paper. 

I know the color isn't completely gone, but this update has made a huge difference! It's MUCH easier than painting (I've tried that) and it's chevron! Who doesn't love chevron!?

I was a little bit excited about it! The kids came in just after I finished, and I was beaming!

"Look guys! Look at the library!"

#onlyteachersunderstand
The kids love the update too! They were excited to see the new set up later during book shopping.

 In order to accomplish this I had to pack away MANY picture books that I know the kids don't read often. I added many new chapter books from series that I know the kids enjoy, and I organized the shelves.
Here's what it looks like now...

The top shelf is in alphabetical order by series. The bottom shelf is random chapter books in order by title, and all the mystery books are in the blue box. I want to add some separation to each series with maybe a laminated strip of thick card stock & a label. That will be my summer project.

These boxes are from Lakeshore. The books are separated by category. Some of my categories are, animals, space & weather, poetry, and then a couple with our favorite characters. The bottom shelf has our dictionaries, and some supplies for Working With Words.
I'll have some fun making these labels too. 

This spindle, which I rescued from the recycle bin, has all my Magic Tree House, Ready Freddy, Who Would Win, and other non-fiction readers that the kids just love. This sits on top of the shelf.

It's amazing what a little contact paper & a lot of thought can do.
I hope you get one of your projects done before a well deserved break friends!!!