An organized library...finally!!!

You guys, I am so excited because my classroom library is finally ORGANIZED!!!! I picked up 24 baskets from the Dollar Tree. I bought 16 for picture books (I have two left over!) and 8 for chapter books. I pretty much kept with the categories in my previous post, but did combine a couple of categories.

This process took several days, but oh my goodness, I just KNOW it will be worth it!! As I said, the first thing I did when organizing my books was divide them by levels. So I made piles of 1.0-1.9 books, 2.0-2.9 books, and so on. Then I chose my categories based on the books I had. For example, I had a TON of dinosaur books, so I have a dinosaur basket. Within that basket there are all different reading levels.

Below, you can see that the reading level is written inside the book:

I am so excited about my chapter book baskets. They are the PERFECT size! And I just love the bright colors! They can fit around 20 chapter books (give or take, depending on how thick the books are).

The only thing left to do is make the labels!

SOOOO many books!

I just have to say that I. LOVE. SUMMER. I have been spending a lot of time at my parents' pool, I went to Austin, TX with the hubs and our friends, I have gotten back into a regular exercise routine, I finally saw Bridesmaids (sooo funny!) aaaaand I have taken on the task of organizing my classroom library.

Since I was already packing up to move into my new classroom, and our school is closed in the summer, I decided to pack up ALL of my books, bring them home, and work on some kind of organization system. It has been QUITE a task. Originally, I was just going to level all the books, and put them in baskets based on reading levels. But after researching online and reading lots of blogs about library organization, I decided to categorize my books. However, I did write the reading levels in all the books that I could.

Based on the books I have, I came up with the following categories:

• Favorite Characters: Clifford, Little Critter, Froggy, Curious George
• Favorite Characters: Arthur & D.W., Berenstain Bears, Amelia Bedelia, Henry & Mudge
• Favorite Authors: Tomie dePaola, Dr. Seuss and Eric Carle
• Dinosaurs (I had a LOT more dino books than I realized!)
• Cartoon Characters (I seem to have a plethora of Spongebob and other random cartoon books!)
• School Picture Books
• The Three F's: Fairytales, Folktales, Fables
• Animal Fiction: Zoo, Farm and Forest Animals
• Animal Fiction: Dogs, Cats, Mice, Pigs, Bugs and Fish
• Animal Nonfiction
• Misc. Nonfiction
• Misc. Fiction
• Biographies, History and the USA
• Mystery Chapter Books
• Magic Treehouse Chapter Books
• Favorite Character Chapter Books: Junie B., Arthur, Horrible Harry, Flat Stanley, American Girl
• School Chapter Books
• Chapter Books About Friends
• Chapter Books About Animals
• Misc. Chapter Books

Depending on the size of baskets/bins I buy, I may be able to combine some of my categories. I know this is probably not my final list, but I feel like it's a good start. My goal is to have it figured out early on in the summer so the hubs and I can have our office back!!