Back to School Guide for a Teacher Establishing a Classroom Library

This is a back to school guide for a teacher establishing a classroom library. Many teachers like to have a classroom library where children can find a book to read. This article will give you some thoughts and information about how to start a classroom library.

There was always a nice assortment of books in our classroom library. The students were allowed to borrow a book from the classroom library to read either in school or at home. My students always enjoyed using our classroom library.

As you prepare your classroom library, you need to remember that the books need to be age and grade level appropriate to the students in your class. With that in mind, the following are some questions you need to ask yourself as you start your classroom library.

How will you gather the books for the classroom library? Some possible options include using some of your own money to purchase some books, whether new or used. To help with your classroom library budget, sometimes public libraries have used book sales where you might be able to get some good books at great prices. You can also look in bookstores for a bargain section. To get books for free, you might ask friends and family to give you books that their children no longer want or need.

Do not worry about not having many books as you start your classroom library, because you can gradually add to the book collection during the year. My classroom library was started with books that the previous teacher left behind.

Once you have some books, you need to decide the location for your classroom library. Where are you going to place the books? Do you have a table to display the books? Will the books be placed in a bookcase? Make sure that the children can safely and easily access the books from wherever you decide to place them.

Will there be a certain time during the school day when the children can look through the books? Can the children borrow a book to read at home or will they only be allowed to borrow the book to read in the classroom?

How will you handle the borrowing of the books? Will the children be required to sign the books out? Can a book be borrowed with only the child's word that it will be returned? My classroom library was always based on the children knowing that if they borrowed a book, they had to return it. This system worked fine during my years as a teacher. It is up to you to decide how you will handle the borrowing of the books in your classroom library.

Once school starts and your classroom library is ready for use, you can tell your students how and when they can use the classroom library.

Hope that this back to school guide was able to give you some ideas and tips on how to start your classroom library.