Borrowing from My Classroom Library

If you've seen my classroom library, you know that I could start a public library up with the amount of books I have! haha.  

Here are a few of my books...


(check {THIS} post to see where the labels came from)

Seriously... some aren't even pictured.... AND I have some in storage from when I taught 3rd grade. Seriously. I think I have an addiction...what do you think??

Anyway, one question I get from followers is if I let students borrow books from me and how I let them do it. 

Let me tell you. I absolutely let kids borrow books from me! It stems from teaching in a Title I school for 11 years. They don't always have books at home and their parents can't/won't take them to the library and our school library has a limit of books.  PLUS, I might have a book that ins't in our library.  Anyway, here is my system of how I have kids borrow my books.

They use a stick.


Haha! So high-techy, right?

Some of you have an app that the students use, but do you SEE the amount of books I have?? I don't have time to log in all those books.. nope. This works pretty well for me - enough for me to not want to take the time to take the time to scan all these books into an app.

Is it full proof?? No... but what IS full proof when it comes to kids??  

I've used it for YEARS.   Like, I think maybe 10 years?   Here is one of my first pictures of the the sticks... and these sticks were a few years old...as you can tell by how dingy they are.  Ew.


Last year, I got a few new paint sticks. You can check your local home improvement store and ask if they will donate some to your classroom.


I painted them my favorite colors.


this year, for a fresh layer of paint, I got a can of spray paint, still in the same color palette.  Let me tell you... this way was much easier! 


And I just wrote some numbers, on both sides...and bam! Sticks to book mark the place where students borrow a book!



If you want to see other ways I use numbers you can check out {this} post.





8 comments

Cassie Thompson said...

Jen, I LOVE this idea! I too have just not had the time or energy to scan every single one of my books. I might have to implement your strategy this year. I will be teaching 2 sections of LA, so I could get 2 sets of paint sticks and paint them 2 different colors. Thanks for sharing this idea!! :)
Happy Teaching,
Cassie
Adventures in Teaching (A First Grade Blog)

Rachel Lamb said...

you so smart!

Kimberly said...

I love your stick system! I'm going to recommend it to some of the teachers I coach. When I was in the classroom, I just told students to bring back as many as they took home. Other teachers thought I was crazy, but I lost very few books over the years and parents always appreciated my willingness to share.
Kimberly
Funky First Grade Fun

CL said...

Great idea. Now, I have to go visit some hardware stores and plead for some freebies.

The Designer Teacher said...

Great idea! I tried a few classroom library apps, but it was such a hassle that I never got them all logged. So many of my books weren't in their system, so then I'd have to enter them manually, etc. Anyway, I like this a lot! I take it kids just borrow one book at a time?

Sarah
Years That Ask Questions

Beth Smith said...

I love this idea! I am curious about how you organize your library. Have you already blogged about library organization? If not, will you? Please? :)

DC adventure girl said...

Fantastic idea. I have always used the logbook system where they write their name and book and then cross it off when it was returned. This will be so simple compared to my system. No matter what system we use, i doubt any of them are fool-proof, nor do they have to be! :) Have a great school year!

Teresa Halminton said...

Love this idea! Finally find the info someone asked the other day about Kirk Douglas on celeb networth I was looking for it all over the web and luckily found it!

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