[lboburka]

Hi! I have an interview for kindergarten tomorrow. With it being so late in the year I have been tackling my classroom library books, and leveling them all (I put the f&p level on the back page so it's hidden) just in case I get this job, then at least my library books are ready to go . I'm curious what you do for your classroom library in Kindergarten. I know a lot of kids will be coming in not being able to read, and I know that I plan on teaching them the three different ways that we can read a book (reading the words, remember a story, or making up a story from the illustrations). How do you organize your books? I plan on having a book shelf with the current monthly theme but then also organizing bins by reading level (I was thinking level A-F) and also by category (holidays, school stories, books about family, animals, friendship, curious george, favorite authors). At what point do you not include a book in the classroom library, is there a certain reading level I shouldn't put in? I have some book titles that are a letter J/K- but are some of my own children's favorite books to look at (like curious george or clifford). Do I just include them knowing that they really won't be "reading" but will just be enjoying the book by looking at the photos? Any advice would be great!

[meandmyhouse]

First, let me wish you good luck with your interview. As to what books to include in your library, I do have a shelf of favorites that I leave out all year. They love looking through books with their favorite characters. I also have bins for leveled readers. Then I put out seasonal, and theme related at the appropriate time of year.

[MalibuBarbie]

First of all, my name is Barb and I'm a bookaholic.

My leveled books are mostly lower levels (DRA 1-12) little guided reading books...over the years I've been able to amass quite a collection. But leveling ALL books--story books? No way.

I have my books sorted in categories just like you mentioned. Makes it easy to find a book I may be looking for. Those books are the high interest books that kids need to choose from to build reading stamina.

I don't assign homework. Sooooo much research that shows it can be counter productive, depending on what it is. (My colleagues and I do assign a couple home projects.) But what I've been doing for years is to allow kids to check out books from my library. We call it Mrs. O's Library. Cuddling up at night with a great book and an adult to read it to my students is the kind of homework I like to see going on. Kids pick Dino or shark books, or go through series like Franklin, Bernstein Bears, Elephant and Piggy....or they choose randomly or pick a book I've read to the class. Some kids get into a routine of returning the books almost everyday while I have to pester others to return them. Kind of like leading a horse to water but not being able to make them drink.

[Drin]

I have a leveled library section and then I have categories/theme books in bins. I have a picture card on each bin with label (ie: animals ). I also use colored electrical tape to indicate the category and also use the same colors on the spine of the book. This helps us keep the books where they belong...it's kind of like our Dewey Decimal System.