Book Leveling and Organization!

Phew! Life has been busy lately. I just recently finished up student teaching and graduated from Western Kentucky University! (WOOOHOOO!!!!)

Okay, so here's what I've been working on lately. I have been on the hunt for books for my classroom library. I had a small collection of chapter books that I purchased when the local Borders went out of business. Each book was only a dollar! I also bought some picture books. I've been shopping for lot sales of books on Ebay as well. Today I went Goodwill and purchased 22 books for 10 dollars! So far I'd say I've been pretty successful but I'm done book shopping for a while, it's starting to add up! If anyone has any suggestions on places to purchase cheap books, please let me know. :) I spent the afternoon using Book Wizard to determine the Lexile Level and DRA level for the books.  I used address labels to mark all the books as "Property of Ms. Clarke" and placed that label in the front inside cover.

[James and the Giant Peach]

Next I made a label for each book marking the Lexile Level and the DRA level. I placed this label in the back of the book, because it's more for my reference than the students but eventually I would like them to be aware of their DRA or Lexile level and use that to double check themselves after using the I PICK strategy from The Daily 5.

[James and the Giant Peach]

My next project was from Pinterest! I decided to make some pencil pails because I can't stand the sound of pencils being sharpened and disrupting hard working students. So I've decided that pencils will be sharpened at the end of the day and that can be one of the classroom jobs. I found this adorable label on Pinterest courtesy of Donna and her blog. You can find the labels on her blog. She has adorable pails with pencils on them, but I had no such luck finding any. So I went with yellow. 

I thought they turned out pretty cute! I also used my labels to create labels for my binder clips. Another idea I got off of Pinterest! :) I labeled mine for the days of the week and also Copy, File, Grade, Pass Out, To Do, Graded.

This week I'm meeting with the rest of my team for next year and I get to see my classroom! I'm thrilled to finally get in the building and get busy. I'm hoping to accomplish a lot this summer on organization for my room but it's slow moving. Until next time! :)