Books I love Linky and my Classroom Library!

Well, today's wind chill did not allow us to have school again today! This was my first thought:

 

 

:) In the true teacher spirit, I'm still working on this snow day! Today I'm linking up with Mr. Greg at the Kindergarten Smorgasbord to share some of my favorite books!

 

 

 I am a little obsessed with books :) Let's just say, it's an amazing thing that those little white and red boxes from Scholastic are delivered to my classroom and not my home! I can't say a have one favorite book or author, but there are several I (puffy heart) love!

Elephant and Piggie. Nuff' said. These books are FULL of voice and my kids and I absolutely adore these books! Wal-Mart has an awesome deal where you are able to select 5 of these books in a bundle for $25! Mo Willems is an author rockstar!

This book... oh, my. I hold a special place in my heart for little Lerch!! I LOVE him!!

Since I never got around to posting a full tour of my room this year, I thought this would be the perfect time to share my classroom library with you!

 

Here is my cozy little library nook! This is one of my favorite parts of my room this year. I love looking over and watching my kids snuggle with a reading buddy and plop themselves down in the library! I love watching them look through all of the books and get excited about them!

 

Above my library is one of our ELA focus walls. On the top left, we have "guidelines" a.k.a rules for our language. below those is our Reading Genre poster. We refer to this poster each day and I just switch the center poster according to our current focus. In the middle are past anchor charts and vocabulary charts for us to refer to throughout the year. On the right are non-fiction text features we review while reading. Below this board are our "Good Fit" books posters and Read to Self posters.

 

My anchor charts are held with binder clips on a push pin.

 

 

 To the left are our truffula trees where our Read to Self charts live, along with the Lorax!

 On the adjoining wall is our most recent Author's Study. This has a list of books we have read, or are currently reading, the author's name, biography, and features we are studying. In the blue bucket on the top of the bookshelf are all books by the Author we are learning about that the students are able to read during Read to Self.

This bookshelf is tiered according to our small groups.

 Beside the blue author study bucket, the red bucket contains class books we have made together.

 The Cat in the Hat and the gem and Fish bowls are part of our whole class behavior plan. Students add gems to the bucket for specials and hallways behaviors, etc. This is located beside our individual behavior cards that you can see sneaking in on the left.

 On the top shelf in this picture, you can see the rectangle red bucket. This bucket contains a "have to book". This is a book that students are required to add to their book buddy each week. This is a text that focuses on a skill we are learning about as a whole group such as a word family, blend, etc. The round red bucket on the right contains all sorts of fun goodies students can read with (close-up pic below).The red, yellow, blue, green, and purple buckets are leveled readers for each one of my small groups. These buckets contain a variety of books at each group's reading level. If a student is struggling during Read to Self, they can easily find several choices here to read.

 

Inside of each group's bucket, there is a mini-recorder. This contains a message from me for the group. These are reminders of strategies we are focusing on, or any other message I'd like for them to keep in mind.

Here is a close-up of goodies students are able to use while reading. Silly glasses, mini-magnifying glasses, fun pointers, and microphones.

To the left of this bookshelf is the rack that  holds all 29 of my kids' reading book buddies. Inside of these bags are their "Book Club" journals, and other leveled readers we have read previously in small groups or as a class. The blue bucket contains reading rugs that students are able to take around the room to find a cozy place to read when the library is full.

 

 This is a closer picture of the reading area. The students are able to use any of the animals around the room to whisper read to.

 Although I never put my labels on my bins this year, my kids do a wonderful job of putting the books back where they belong!

 

 I hope you enjoyed a peek into my library! :)

Don't forget to enter for your chance to win a FREE copy of February's journals pack in yesterday's post! You can find it here