I get asked all the time about my favorite classroom library resources, so in this post I’m sharing ALL the details about my top 10 favorite classroom library resources! This post includes links to things that I get asked about frequently! I make a super small commission off of affiliate links at no extra cost to you! Thank you so much for supporting me by shopping using my links! Alright, let’s get to it!
1. Books, Books, Books!
Obviously books are the top item on this list, because they are the most important part of the classroom library! Our classroom library has three different sections: fiction books, informational books, and graphic novels! I am always adding new books to our classroom library, and our fastest growing section is definitely our graphic novels!
I shared some of my students’ favorite graphic novels on another post that you can read here. You can also check out my Amazon storefront lists for fiction books, informational books, graphic novels, and picture books! You can check them out by clicking on the links below!
2. Book Spine Labels
I started organizing our classroom library using book spine labels years ago, and it has been the BEST change for our classroom library! Our books are organized in alphabetical order by author, just like in bookstores and public libraries! (I also have genre book spine labels if you want to organize according to genre, as well as informational book spine labels based on the Dewey Decimal system!) The book spine labels have a color and letter/icon, so it is super easy to keep books organized! Students can easily see where books belong on the bookshelves, and can put them away in the correct space! Then other readers can easily find the book when they are done!
Also, organizing this way allows students to see the spines/titles of each and every book! No more books getting buried in the back of book baskets! If you want more detailed information about my book spine labels, I have an entire post about it that you can read here!
My Book Spine Labels can be printed on white Avery labels either using a personal printer or they can also be printed at your local office supply store!
3. Personalized Book Stamp
One of the ways I try to ensure that our classroom library books are returned to our classroom library is to stamp each book with a personalized book stamp! I’ve used several different stamps over the years, but I just bought this new stamp and I LOVE it! I stamp the front inside cover of each book before it’s added to our classroom library. The stamp comes in lots of other different designs as well! You can check them out here!
4. Book Display Stands
I love having book stands to display books in our classroom library! Our class librarians are in charge of choosing books for the book displays that they think their classmates would like to read! I picked up these book stands years ago, but I’ve linked similar ones for you here!
5. Bookends
While most of our classroom library books fit on the bookshelves, we keep some of our graphic novel books on top of the shelves! I recently purchased these bookends to keep the books in place! If you are looking for simple, inexpensive book ends to keep books on top of your bookshelves from falling over, these are perfect!
6. Rolling Cart
My rolling cart has been a huge help with keeping my classroom library book spine labels organized and ready to add to new books! I keep all the labels and the tape I use to cover the labels on the bottom shelf of the rolling cart. We keep books that need to be labeled on the middle shelf. This cart also comes in tons of different colors!
7. Shelf Dusters
Our classroom librarians keep our shelves looking neat and tiny, but sometimes the shelves gather dust and need to be wiped off! I love these dusters because they are easy to use and quickly clean dust off our bookshelves! Our classroom librarians do this as part of their class job!
8. Genre Posters
A lot of our discussions around books we are reading revolve around genre, so I love having these genre posters displayed above our classroom library! We refer to them frequently when discussing books! You can get these genre posters here! (If you are interested in organizing your classroom library by genre, I also have a bundle with these genre posters and genre book spine labels!)
That sums up my top 8 favorite resources for our classroom library! Wanna know more? I have a whole collection of classroom library posts that you can find here!
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