Best Books For 2nd Grade Classroom Library

[Pricilla Igoe]

Welove these favorite character series because they typically follow a predictable story line. For students working on comprehension, they have fairly simple problems and solutions and students definitely gravitate to familiar characters!

We also wanted to make sure the library had a ton of great read-aloud books for Stephanie to use all year long. Some of these books have strong messages and are great for deep comprehension lessons. Some of them are just amazing, funny books that every student should get a chance to read!

Unfortunately we only had a few weeks and a limited budget. If I could do it again, I would spend more money on books with neuro-diverse characters. Each year, we have more students in our classrooms with various needs. Some students need extra behavior supports and some are on the Autism spectrum. It is SO important our students see characters like them and their classmates. Alyssa at Simply Special Ed has an awesome blog post about some of her favorite read-alouds.

As I mentioned, all of the above links are affiliate links. That means, at no cost to you, I get a tiny percentage of the sale price to help keep this website up and running! You can find all of these titles and more in my Amazon store!

First of all, I noticed many bins were gathering dust, while the same bins were continuously empty due to popularity. I loved that my students were feeding off of each other for book recommendations and eyeballing what others were reading, but there were some really good books being overlooked in those dusty bins! Organizing my classroom library without bins makes it easier for students to explore all of the books I have to offer without having to sift through an overlooked or unloved bin.

In an effort to recreate the feel of our media center and to reinforce the importance of respecting books, I made shelf markers (an editable freebie) for each student. I printed them in black and white on card stock, allowed students to decorate them, then laminated them for durability. Students were taught how to use shelf markers, in our media center. In short, the shelf marker goes in place of the book you want a closer look at. If the book suits you, you take it (and put it in your book bin). If the book is not a good fit, it goes back on the shelf right where your shelf marker is. This helps to ensure that the books remain on the right shelves matching their label.

Lastly, I place my REALLY low books (Horrible Harry, Clementine Nancy Drew Clue Crew, Magic School Bus chapter books) in the bottom drawer of my black file cabinet. From there, I added containers to the bottom shelves of my fiction and nonfiction shelves for students to pick from. My students who read at grade-level or above never really paid attention to these books (although they were welcome to pick them up for a quick, fun read), but my below-grade level readers were able to pick books from the shelves just like everyone else!

This is amazing! You have motivated me to make some changes to my classroom library! Do you have a master list of the words you used under "Words to Know"? Thanks for sharing your ideas! amyn...@hotmail.com

I have been looking for a new way to organize my library. I have the opportunity to redo it all now, so I think I shall take a page from you book no pun intended ; ) when I put it all back together again in August. Thanks for sharing your ideas!

Catherine you library looks great! I like your idea about having the kids track scholastic points and so forth. Those scholastic points are like gold! Just like you those points and Donor's Choose have funded my classroom library. Lovin your genre posters, I have them on my wish list.

Hi Carrie! The posters are in my store along with coordinating reading comprehension posters and classroom expectation posters. ? The tubs are from Lowes. They are the Bella tubs that sell for $1.27. They are a little bigger than the Dollar Tree tubs and completely clear!!

I have been thinking about my classroom library, so this was a timely post! Do you label your books at all (colored stickers or something like that)? I have my books separated by genre as well, but I am considering whether to label them (subtly) or not.

I see that you have different classes. When a child picks a chapter book that takes them a few days to read where do they put it? I have a major problem with a child from my first class picking a book and a different child from my second class takes that book. I have about 60 children so individual book bins don't work well because of space.

This is my thought as I look around my first grade classroom. Children are spread out in groups on the floor and sitting at tables surrounded by books. There are books in piles, books in laps, and books spread out so far we have to make paths for walking. This is what happens every year on the day we organize our classroom library, together.

Once the kids have created their piles of books, the stacks get put in baskets. Each partnership is then given a basket of books, a slip of paper and markers. Their job is to create the labels that will let everyone in the class know what books live in that basket. After the labels are finished, I cover them with strips of packing tape to keep them from folding up or falling off. I then ask all the partners to come to the rug with their baskets. The partners take turns introducing their basket of books to the class and then placing it on the bookshelf so all the kids can see where to find it.

It can be overwhelming to try and tackle the whole classroom library at once. For me, the kids organize the fiction bins first. Nonfiction is organized prior to starting our nonfiction reading and writing units to build excitement for topics. I leave the leveled section of my library alone as it would be too much for the kids to try and level all those books themselves.

Whew! They did it. By taking extra time to build the library in your classroom, you will foster excitement for reading, expose the kids to a variety of reading material and empower kids to make choices. What a difference you will see in the way your kids interact with the books from that day on. Give it a try and see what happens.

Sometimes classroom disruptions are rooted in different learning and work styles among children. Andrea Smith finds her attempt to settle a dispute between students about project collaboration helps her face some truths about her own work style.

Love, love, love your classroom library and how you have a mix of organization! I am striving to make my library more like one you would find in a full size library and I feel like by organizing the fiction books by author that would be a great start! The spine labels really seem to make it easier for the students too!

I will be making my library look like yours next summer for sure! I love the labels you use and the colored spin labels. I don't always like how long it takes my kids to go through the baskets, so I do like the way you have it organized both ways. Thanks for sharing and I will definitely be grabbing up your labels!!

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This was a perfect post fore to read right now. I am moving from 4th to 3rd and sort of to a new state. I leveled my library using Accelerated Reader and they don't use that at my new school. So I have been trying to figure out what would be best this summer. I'm not sure leveling my books with the guided reading level is best either. Ideas, advice, anything would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your blog and the ideas and resources you share. I always look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Just added this to the "summer projects" list I have going on my Google Drive. Your library is absolutely gorgeous and I love that there are so many ways to identify where books belong. Thanks from a very busy Montessori teacher!

I am organizing my library right now and I love how you have most of your fiction books on a shelf, binding out, in alphabetical order. How did you determine which fiction books went on the shelf and which went in genre baskets? Obviously, I am putting my picture books in baskets but I'm still trying to figure out which chapter books to keep in genre baskets and which to put on the shelf. Thanks!

I have a question about the labels staying on your chapter books. I know you print them off on Avery labels, but how well do they stay on the spin? Do you find that you have to replace the labels or do you use those clear library label covers to keep them on? My fear is with the kids opening the books that the labels would come off. Any advice?

When I saw that Sigma Tau Delta was taking applications for the Classroom Library Grant, I jumped on it. It was our first week of school. I emailed my new principal right away to sheepishly ask for a letter verifying my position in the building and intent to build my classroom library. I introduced my students to my tiny library with the message that, should I receive a $400 grant soon, we would have many more books to choose from!

Pairing the Sigma Tau Delta Classroom Library Grant with another grant I was able to receive locally for $375 boosted my library from 96 YA titles to 164 YA titles. I am, of course, far from finished with my classroom library, but we are off to a strong start. Time to go finish more books!

The Classroom Library Grants are also intended to support our members who have entered the field of teaching and need material support to help achieve these goals through their work in the classroom by providing their students with a library in their own classrooms, especially where access to school or public libraries or to books in the home may be limited.

The Society will award up to five grants of $400 each per cycle to help members of Sigma Tau Delta who have been teaching in a Middle School or High School classroom for five years or fewer. That is, applicants may or may not be recent college graduates; the Classroom Library Grant is intended to help new Middle School and High School teachers, whether in their first years out of college or in the first years of a second career, to build a classroom library for their students.

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