My Classroom Library - a peek inside!

As I was doing my end-of-the-week tidy up yesterday afternoon I snapped a few photos of my classroom library to share with you all.  Hopefully you'll find a few easy ideas that you can use to organise yours or to help your kidlets become excited about reading!

First up, let's talk about how I organise my books.  I know it's not perfect, but I wanted there to be some order so that kidlets could make informed decisions about the books they choose for their book box - and I wanted to scaffold their choice of a 'best fit' text. 

One shelf holds our levelled readers, organised into baskets of 2 levels.  For this term, I have been choosing these books for kidlets - explaining that I'm giving them 1 book at their level, 1 that's easy practise and 1 that's more of a challenge.  Next term they will have control over these choices.  I was undecided as to whether or not I should display the levels... I didn't want reading to become a competitive sport.  Luckily enough, my Preppies have always been happy to choose their level and not worry what their friends' levels are. :) As these are all school books I can't really re-sticker them with colours etc. so the levels are the easiest for organisation at the moment.

Two other shelves hold our picture books and non-fiction texts. The left shelf has baskets organised by author - Mem Fox, Dr. Seuss, Pamela Allen and Jez Alborough - as well as two baskets of non-fiction.  On the top are pink baskets with Grug and Little Golden Books.  We also have a returns box. Children can choose whichever books they like from here.  It took a few weeks, but they are getting pretty good at leafing through to check and see whether a book is one that interests them rather than grabbing random ones.

Now on to the fun stuff! I have a little collection of tools that my kidlets can choose any time they are reading to help them engage with a book.  Our 'Reading Glasses' are just dollar store sunglasses with the lenses popped out.

'Sight Word Stars' are the newest addition to our library.  I typed our sight words onto some star clipart, laminated and cut them before taping them onto a giant straw (from Ikea!).  Kidlets use these to search for sight words they know in 'tricky' picture books.

We have a variety of pointers to use as well, these really help to ensure that kidlets attend to the text they're reading - particularly in Guided Reading groups.  At the moment I've only got the googly eye sticks out, but now that my clever Preppies are using these responsibly I'll add some new ones next term.  I get everything from the dollar store!

Googly eyes glued to craft sticks.

Magic wand party favours.

Plastic magnifying glasses.

Torches.

Two big containers hold our 'Reading Buddies' and 'Whisper Phones'.  Buddies are available any time kidlets want to read their book aloud.  They never interrupt and are nice to cuddle. :)  I asked parents last year if anyone knew a plumber who could get me cheaper plastic pipes to make Whisper Phones, and was so appreciative when one of my little girl's uncles just went ahead and made them as a donation!  They're two pieces glued together, and I just decorated them with colourful duct tape.

Lucky last - our Book Boxes!!

I used the 100 Scrappy Kids set that Mel (Graphics from the Pond) made to personalise each label.  I chose the scrappy kid that most looked like each kidlet, and we also use the same graphics for desk labels.  Each week we change our books (3 levelled texts and 4-5 other books) to keep for our independent reading time.  At this stage of the year my class can read for 10-15 minutes in silence, which I think is pretty good for Term 1 Preppies! :)

That's all from me today!  Easter holidays are coming up so hopefully I'll have some extra time and energy to post a little more - I have lots of photos of fun activities we've been doing but end of term exhaustion has just kicked my butt.  I really hope you found an idea or two today that you can use, and I promise to be back soon!!

Cheap & Cheerful Tools for Reading FUN!

I looked around my classroom today as my kidlets were busy with their book boxes and it warmed my heart to see them totally engaged with their reading.  All of them - even my tricky characters - had found themselves a comfortable spot and were absorbed in their books.  At that point, I was completely unnecessary to them and it's the happiest I've been in ages. :) I love that my kidlets love to read, but they don't always start the school year out feeling like that.  I thought I'd share a few DIY tools that I use along the way to keep reading fun and motivation high.

Graphics From the Pond and KG Fonts made this quote look cute!

My kidlets keep their books in cardboard magazine files with personalised labels.  They are always excited to choose new books and treat their book box super carefully - the fact that it's theirs helps to make reading time all the more exciting.  Our classroom library is small but choosing books is always fun!  My kidlets choose a combination of levelled readers, picture books and non-fiction books to keep for the week.

Let's start with the basics - everyone knows that to do your very best reading, you need to wear your reading glasses!  Grab yourself some dollar store sunglasses (from the party loot section), pop the lenses out and you've got yourself some colourful specs.

I'm sure you would have seen these guys on Pinterest - Whisper Phones!  You can grab the pieces of pipe from a hardware store, but I put a request out to see if anyone knew a plumber who had offcuts that I could use.  One of my kidlets had an uncle who not only donated the pipes, but glued them together for me! (I sent a photo home to show what I was hoping to make.)  I just added some rainbow duct tape to pretty them up.

These are great to help with fluency and expression during independent reading time - kidlets can hear their voices even if they are whispering and adjust their tone, pace etc. to make their reading 'sound like a story'.

Next up is an easy idea that can end up being completely free!  Reading Buddies are simply cuddly toys that are available for kidlets to read to.  They just love reading a story to a buddy - again, awesome practice for fluency and expression and a real confidence booster for reluctant readers at the beginning of the year.  I sent a note home to parents last year and within a week had more than 25 gorgeous toys donated for the library, some of them brand new. :)

I use a variety of pointers in Guided Reading to help with tracking and place-keeping, as well for kidlets to point to sight words, punctuation, letters etc.  Most of them I bought from the dollar store!

Craft sticks + googly eyes.

Magic wands.

Magnifying glasses.

Small torches.

I hope that you picked up a few ideas to use. :) Do you have any cheap & cheerful reading tools that you like to use in your classroom?  I'd love hear them! 

Five for Friday! 11/10/13

I'm so late to the linky this week that my post is really a Five for Fraturday... but hey, better late than never! :) And please excuse my terrible photography skills this week - I was having a shocker!

1. In Maths groups this week we revised addition concepts with our pool noodle beads.  We practised representing number stories with the beads to find the total, counting on and my sweethearts even practised telling their own addition number stories.  One kidlet exclaimed 'This is the funnest Maths group ever!'... The simple things in life are often the best, I guess! :)

I have permission to publish photos of these two cuties.

2. Sight Word Slam - new favourite game! The rules are easy - be the first to bounce a ball on the word called and you get a point. 

3. I couldn't resist sharing this photo of one of my sweet kidlets reading a story to one of our Reading Buddies.  

4. Conversations this week almost always started with this exchange:

Person A: Pretty hot today!

Person B: Yeah - stinking!

Which is the Queensland way of discussing the warm weather! We had temperatures in the low 30s and sunny skies all week.  Yesterday I opened my (air-conditioned) classroom door and it honestly felt like I had opened an oven, the air outside was so hot.  The kidlets enjoyed running through the sprinklers at lunch time to cool down. :)

5. I'm excited to turn this gorgeous fabric from Ikea into some cushions for my couch!  And by that, I mean that a lovely friend is going to sew them for me. :) I'm planning another Ikea trip to buy some more fabric in a different pattern - there's heaps of designs and most are about $9.99 per metre. (That sounds like an ad - I promise it's not!  I'm hot and cold with Ikea, but love this fabric.)

Happy weekend everyone!  I'm off to Doodle Bugs to link up and check out the other Friday Fives.

Lauren

Five for Friday! 21/09/13

Five for Friday time!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs to share some randomness from my week. :)

1. OK, some school stuff first.  This week we made this cute owl craft after reading a book called 'Oola, The Owl Who Lost Her Hoot'.  The illustrations in the book were collage, and each little owl was made from patterned paper and fabric. I threw together a much simpler version for my kidlets because they thought Oola was so cute.  We used scrapbooking paper and coloured card. I'm going to display them on the bulletin board in our reading corner on a collage-inspired tree!

2. Earlier in the term I put out a request to my class parents asking for donations of 'Reading Buddies' - cuddly toys that can keep us company and listen to our stories during independent reading time.  Within 2 days I had 25 toys - most of them brand new!!  Since then my kidlets have been more eager than ever to read.  Gotta love that!  This is my favourite Reading Buddy, a gorgeous puppy with big, sad eyes.

I have permission from this cutie's Mum to publish his photo.

3. There's nothing quite like waking up on the first day of holidays and knowing that you have 2 glorious weeks to relax and unwind!  Unfortunately, I woke up early this morning, realised it was holidays and then was too excited to go back to sleep! :)  I'll have to have a sleep in tomorrow.  My early morning job was throwing the cushion covers and Gavin (our class writing pet) in the washing machine to get rid of a term of germs.

4. Holiday job number two: get my hair done.  I went for a blunt fringe this time, just because I felt like a change!

5. All the way across the Pacific my lovebird is having his birthday. Happy Birthday to my one and only. :)

Chris came to visit Australia in April and this was our favourite place.  The Opera Bar in Sydney.

I hope wherever you are, you are having a wonderful weekend.  And for Aussie teachers - enjoy your holidays!  I know I will. :)

Lauren