The Best Way to Set Up Your Classroom Library

Organizing your classroom library in Kindergarten can be overwhelming. What is the best way to organize your library – by genre? By topic? By level?

Most of our kindergarteners have never used a classroom library before. How will our students know where to put books away? How many books should I have out at one time?

There is a lot to consider when setting up your classroom library in Kindergarten, but that’s why I’m here!

Hopefully, these tips and ideas will be a helpful place to start as you begin organizing your classroom library this year.

Questions To Consider Before Setting Up Your Library

Before setting up and organizing your classroom library, you will want to ask yourself these questions. It can be easy to get caught up in what you see other teachers doing, but this will help you plan for the best classroom library for you and your students.

• When and how often will students use the classroom library?
• What books do I already have?
• Are there any topics or genres that I know are important but I am missing?
• What space do I have in my classroom for a library?
• What is the best way to organize the books in my classroom library?
• Do I want my library books in bins or free on the shelf?
• What sizes are my books? Do I have bins that will fit every size?
• How much money can I realistically spend on my classroom library? Do I even want to spend money on my library?
• How will students know where to put the classroom library books back?
• How many books can students have out at one time? How many students can read a book at the same time?

Planning For Your Classroom Library Center

The first question to consider when organizing your classroom library is, when and how often will students use the classroom library?

Our classroom library is a second choice center. That means that each group of students can go there once a week.

However, my students can also access our classroom library during free time, morning tubs, or as an early finisher activity.

Next, consider where you want your classroom library to be. Do you want a dedicated space for your classroom library? Would you rather have bins or small areas all over the classroom?

In my kindergarten classroom, I prefer to have a dedicated area for my classroom library. This isn’t a huge area and that’s okay!

I don’t have lots of fancy seating, but my students don’t need it. They’d rather lay on the floor. 😉

If you do want seating in your classroom library, here are some inexpensive options:

• Crate seats or storage cube ottomans – these can double as storage for extra books or classroom supplies
• Small beach chairs – these tend to go on clearance around back to school time
• Bath mats – yes, students are still on the floor, but it gives them a space and it’s soft

With any classroom library seating or stuffed animals, you will want to consider three things – germs, lice, and bed bugs. Gross, I know, but a real concern!

Consider how washable your materials are and how often you will actually wash them.

We also have a display bookshelf. I call this the “bookshelf center” and it’s where I keep seasonal books.

This is another second choice center, and it’s just a way for my students to have more access to our library books without crowding my actual classroom library.

Classroom Library Bins

When organizing your classroom library in Kindergarten, you will want to consider what bins or baskets will work best for you and your budget.

I have used a lot of different bins and baskets throughout the years!

When I first began teaching, I didn’t have a big budget. I used plastic bins from The Dollar Tree. I also turned crate containers on their side and put books in the front. The plastic bins then went on top. {I wish I had saved pictures of my first few classrooms, but I can’t find them anywhere!}

This was an easy way to organize my library on a budget, but many of the Dollar Tree plastic bins broke before the end of the year.

I bought plastic bins from Big Lots and those lasted forever! Honestly, I don’t think I could break them if I wanted to.

As my classroom library has developed, I don’t use those big lots bins on my shelves as they take up a lot of space. But I do use them on top of my bookshelves for bigger books or topics that have too many books to fit in a book bin.

Currently, I use plastic book bins to organize my classroom library books. I got the black sterilite book bins from Discount School Supply and the rainbow bins from Lakeshore Learning.

These were an investment! But you can find similar book bins at Target or Walmart for much less.

How Will You Organize Your Classroom Library Books?

As you plan out what bins or baskets you will use, you will also need to consider – how Will your organize your classroom library books?

There is no wrong answer to this question.

Personally, I like to organize my library books by characters and topics.

You can find these real photo classroom library labels in my store. They do not include any book characters as that would not be legal, but there are editable labels for you to add your own.

As you organize your classroom library books, you can also see if there are any genres or topics that are missing. Some questions to consider:

• Are all of my students represented in these books?
• Do I have books for topics or themes we will cover this year?
• Do I have at least some books students can read (decodable books)?
• Will I want to have a basket for student created books from writing workshop?

How Will Students Know Where To Put the Books Back?

There is nothing more frustrating than organizing your entire classroom library… and then having your Kindergarten students tornado through it.

There are a few easy fixes for this, though!

First, use stickers on your library books that match each book bin and show students where to put the book back. These book label stickers come with my classroom library labels.

Next, when you introduce centers at the beginning of the year, spend time showing students how to get books, how to handle the books, and how to put them back. Then, give them time to practice!

I actually start introducing and practicing this the first week of school BEFORE we begin introducing our free flow centers.

That way, every time students finish something early that first week (because you’ll have a wide variety of students), they can practice using the library.

And they love it!

I actually took these photos the first week of school when half my class was scattered on the floor reading and half was finishing up a name craft.

Some Unpopular Classroom Library Opinions

I have a few opinions about organizing your classroom library in Kindergarten that might be unpopular, but they come from years of experience!

1. You CAN have too many books! We are told over and over again that it’s impossible to have too many books. I started collecting tubs full of books when I was in college.

And guess what? Many were never used. They say in storage. Students never touched them.

If your kindergarten students have too many books to choose from, they can easily become overwhelmed. I keep the majority of my books in bins that only I access for read alouds now.

I also purge my books often! Before major school breaks or at the end of the year, I put piles and piles of books on the carpet and let students take home what interests them!

I’d rather students have those books to read at home then have them sit untouched on our shelves or in storage.

2. You don’t need to hang up posters or decor in your classroom library (unless they are anchor charts you made with your students).

Here’s the thing.. our students can’t read yet. So posters on the wall really serve no purpose except to look good to us.

The same with decor. It looks good to us! But it can be visually overwhelming and over-stimulating to many of our students.

3. You don’t need buckets of stuffed animals and pillows.

See above – lice, bed bugs, germs.. yuck! Your kindergarten classroom library can still be a fun and inviting place without those things.

Setting Up Centers in Kindergarten

Hopefully this blog post gave you a lot to consider when organizing your classroom library in Kindergarten! This entire week, I am writing one blog post a day about how to set up your kindergarten literacy centers for success so you can start this year confident.

You can read more of those posts here:

• Setting Up Your Basket Literacy Centers
• Setting Up Your Writing Center

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