Organize, Inventory, and LOVE your classroom library in 90 minutes

Ah, my first summer classroom project is {almost} complete! I'm going to start moving into my new classroom at my new school this week and am extremely excited. I wanted to complete a few projects first and organizing my classroom library was one of them.

Now if you're anything like me you obviously cannot memorize your (400+) books in your classroom library and are constantly searching for books you can't remember if you have or not for lessons, read alouds, reading groups, etc. Don't worry people, I found your lifesaver!

Now this Books App 2 for your SmartPhone lets you inventory your books so no more, "Do I have that book?" Oh ya, and it's FREE! Phew! I scanned in all my books (well, almost all my books) in about an hour. The App is really user-friendly, you can just can the barcode on the back of your books or type in the ISBN number for those books without barcodes (any you get directly from Scholastic) and it adds them to your inventory. 

If you want step-by-step directions on how to use this App to inventory and organize your library click HERE! 

I just have to show my favorite feature about the App, the "Friends" feature.

The "Friends" feature lets you keep track of which books you loan out to people. GENIUS! No more, "Who did I let borrow that book???". I'm really excited to try that out this year.

Now once all my books were scanned in and inventoried I wanted to organize them. I taught third grade for the last two years and am now starting my first grade adventure so I needed to reorganize them in a first grade friendly way.

First I organized all my books my various topics; Arthur Books, Nonfiction, Fiction (which I leveled into 5 groups), Animals, Seasons, Holidays, Alphabet, Numbers & Counting, Junie B. Jones Books, Magic Tree House Books, Clifford Books, etc.

I organize my books in clear plastic bins which I got from Big Lots for about $1.00 each. You can find them at any store with a storage section.

Then I printed off my library bin labels which can be found at my TPT store! My classroom is safari themed (I am slightly obsessed with giraffes) so my labels fit right in. 

Then admire!

I can't wait to get my classroom library (or "Reading Hut" as I call it in my room) all set up this week.

If you have 90 extra minutes on your hands (HA!) get at it!

Enjoy!