How does your library grow?

A few years ago, a child from another class peeped through my open classroom door after school and asked with all sincerity, "Is this the library for Building B?" No, sweet boy, it's just a classroom with lots and lots of books. I understand his confusion, though. Honestly, our school library needs more books, and our classroom is filled with reading materials. Mrs. D and I love books, and we believe strongly that children should be surrounded by them. Print-rich environment . . . check!

To help readers find materials that will interest them and help with their research, I've organized our non-fiction literature into subject-based "Book Boxes" on the shelves with related learning materials. We've got books on the math shelf, on the geometry shelf (the Sir Cumference series has recently become a hit with my third graders who are learning to measure angles!), and on the grammar shelf. We've got books about measurement and money, science and social studies. (Last year, after a few weeks with paleontologists, I realized our collection of dinosaur books was in serious need of expansion. Now we have more than will fit in the box!)

We've got poetry books, picture story books, chapter books, and a very old set of encyclopedias. Our origami books are in constant demand. We even haul books along with us on field trips!



With the points we earn from Scholastic book orders for free classroom books, holiday gifts to our classroom from families, a few kind donors, and our personal purchases, we have no shortage of books.


Thanks to the generosity of students' families, we've also got magazines galore! Each year, I manage (without much difficulty) to recruit six families, each willing to sponsor a subscription to a children's magazine for the classroom. Every month, we receive a fresh, juicy issue of Ranger Rick, Dig, Spider, Kids Discover, Ask, and AppleSeeds.

With so many choices, how could you not find something you'd love to read?!

At the start of the school year, I give new students a tour of our classroom library, explaining how the reading materials are organized, how to find what interests them, and how to carefully restore books to the shelves and boxes where they belong. I also teach a "five finger test" so that they can independently identify books that are at the right reading level. It's adorable to watch a child look over a page in a book, occasionally sticking up a finger and then conclude, "Nope. I think I'm not quite ready for this book. Maybe in a couple of months . . ." or "Yep. This one will be good for me!" When new reading materials arrive in the classroom, I often give a "book talk," or a little advertisement about the new book or magazine. At the end of Silent Reading, I sometimes ask the children, "Who's discovered a book they think other students would love?" and invite them to quickly tell us a couple of sentences about why.

At home, you might consider a seasonal book basket. This could be placed in a cozy spot in the living room or better yet . . . in the bathroom. This may sound a tad unsanitary, but let's face it, even advertisers have figured out that we (well, most of us) are a captive audience in the bathroom. When I was a child, we had a collection of "Bathroom Books" in a basket in the bathroom. Now, this is not the place for your favorite family heirloom books. Even though we quickly learned to snatch up the book basket at the first sign of impending bathroom flood, sadly some of our Bathroom Books ended up water-logged. The Bathroom Books also ended up being some of our best-loved books because we read them again and again. Capitalize on those "captive moments." Read-Aloud Guru Jim Trelease suggests, "There is probably more reading done in the bathrooms of America than all the libraries and classrooms combined. Put a book basket in there, stocked with books, magazines, and newspapers."

Trelease offers up "the Three B's of a home reading kit":
1) Books Ownership of at least a few books is important. The public library has an Annual Children's Book Sale (September 25-27, 2009). Inexpensive books can be found at thrift stores and Half Price Books (a favorite personal haunt--Mrs. D and Mr. D go there for dates!). If you can afford only one, Trelease recommends Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. Supplement your home collection by visiting the public library regularly.

2) Book Baskets stocked with reading material, placed in spots where they can be used often--such as the bathroom and near the kitchen table. With our urban sprawl lifestyle, you might also place a book basket in the car, provided the members of your family are not prone to motion sickness!

3) Bed Lamp Offer the privilege of staying up a little later (an extra 15 minutes or so) if the child would like to spend the extra time reading in bed. Tell your child, "If you don't want to read, that's okay too. We'll just turn off the light at the same old time." Associate the privilege with the pleasure of reading in bed.

Resources:
The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease
Jim Trelease's website
Framing Literacy: Teaching/Learning in K-8 Classrooms by Frances Mallow & Leslie Patterson
Nonfiction in Focus by Janice Kristo & Rosemary Bamford