The tornado begins during specials and I spread all the books over the floor. The students come in and are shocked to see the floor. Each student has a sheet on a clipboard to record any books that they might want to read. I give each student an empty container and they start to walk around the room looking for books that may be similar. (Hint: the day before we brainstorm all the ways that libraries are organized and we create a list) The talk in the classroom is amazing-everyone helps everyone. They discuss favorite books, books they want to read, and better yet books they have never seen before so now they are curious. Better yet they know where to find all those books because they set up the library!
The next step is to decorate a white index card for their tub which is fun and the students tend to take their tub personally because typically they are designing a tub that has one of their favorite books in it.
 |
| Original name cards for tubs |
Finally the students organize our class library and decide how to group the tubs. This year we have six sections: author, series, genres, poetry, picture books, and topics.
 |
| Our author bookshelf. |
This is one of those activities when the day is done I am exhausted but thrilled that the students were able to see all the books and be excited about reading. PRICELESS!
