How do you set up your reading center

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Kindergarten Teachers Chatboard

How do you set up your reading center

by Amy K

Aug 1, 2016

How do you set up your reading center in your classroom? I see so many pictures of rooms online where people have bins and bins and bins of books for the kids to select from. They are all organized so nicely by subject, author etc... They then have comfy chairs or even a couch in the reading center. It all looks great, but do most people really have that much space? My room is not super tiny, but it isn't real big either. If I dedicated as much space in my room for a reading center as I see on Pinterest and teacher websites, my kids wouldn't have any space too sit, do work or play. It baffles me that so many teachers have rooms that have to be at least twice the space that I have. I have a very small, simplistic reading center. I have a very nice Lakeshore reading shelf that I change out monthly. It houses holiday / seasonal books (fall, Halloweeen, Christmas, winter etc....) I then have a shelf that holds four large bins. I label 2 bins "fiction" and 2 bins "nonfiction....See More

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Flacka Pinterest has been a godsend and a curse to everyone, including teachers. If your system works for you then there is no need to change. I am a big believer that kids need choices but too many choices is overwhelming, even for adults.

I found that reading in the reading center became social time and they really didn't read or even look at ...See MorePinterest has been a godsend and a curse to everyone, including teachers. If your system works for you then there is no need to change. I am a big believer that kids need choices but too many choices is overwhelming, even for adults.

I found that reading in the reading center became social time and they really didn't read or even look at the pictures much. Sometimes it was part of my daily 5 rotation and sometimes not.

We each have to find what works for us and our class and there is no need to "compete" with the teachers who post these fabulous pictures.

On 8/01/16, Amy K wrote: > How do you set up your reading center in your classroom? I see so > many pictures of rooms online where people have bins and bins and > bins of books for the kids to select from. They are all organized so > nicely by subject, author etc... They then have comfy chairs or even a > couch in the reading center. It all looks great, but do most people > really have that much space? My room is not super tiny, but it isn't real > big either. If I dedicated as much space in my room for a reading > center as I see on Pinterest and teacher websites, my kids wouldn't > have any space too sit, do work or play. It baffles me that so many > teachers have rooms that have to be at least twice the space that I > have. I have a very small, simplistic reading center. I have a very > nice Lakeshore reading shelf that I change out monthly. It houses > holiday / seasonal books (fall, Halloweeen, Christmas, winter etc....) I > then have a shelf that holds four large bins. I label 2 bins "fiction" and > 2 bins "nonfiction." As we read books that are not holiday/seasonal, I > put them in these bins for the kids to read and look at. Once they get > too full, I take some of the books out and put them away to make room > for new books that we have read. It works and my kids have plenty of > books to read. I just feel like sometimes I am the only teacher that > doesn't have an elaborate reading center for my kindergarteners. So I > am just curious as to what everyone else is doing.

Aug 1, 2016

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maureen I was always blessed to have rather large classrooms so I usually had a little sofa where 2 or 3 children could sit and sometimes I even had a couple added recliners (that I tied inside so they couldn't recline). The other children just sat on the floor or brought books to a table.(I usually had between 24 - 30 students each year) I had a nice litt...See MoreI was always blessed to have rather large classrooms so I usually had a little sofa where 2 or 3 children could sit and sometimes I even had a couple added recliners (that I tied inside so they couldn't recline). The other children just sat on the floor or brought books to a table.(I usually had between 24 - 30 students each year) I had a nice little throw rug in front of the sofa and a basket of books set off to the side. There would a nice print of a classic painting over the sofa to tie in the color. I didn't have access to Pinterest in those days.

My bookshelves for all of my books were separate from the reading corner. I didn't use bins. I just taped a strip on the binding in different colors (green for science, blue for geography, brown for botany, red for fiction, yellow for cultural) and kept them sorted on the bookshelves like they are in libraries. Sometimes a child would "fix" any out of place books or we would do it together as a project. Overall, the children did a great job keeping the books organized. I only changed the books in the basket next to the sofa. Those would have some seasonal books or the ones I read to the class as a group. We had very few fiction books in our classroom. I kept the ones we had that did not have talking animals - only reality based as much as possible. The children would spend a great deal of time looking at pictures of the non fiction books especially those animal "dictionaries".

If I used actual "readers" I kept them in a separate area. I wanted to be sure they were reading those books instead of just memorizing the text.

I think your approach is very good and since it works so well for you, I wouldn't change a thing. I was an interior designer in my first career so I was strong in providing an inviting and classic environment just for children. To me as long as the children want to spend time in the area looking or reading books, then you have a nice reading center. I have seen such centers that were so over the top, that it looked like it was more to impress the adults then it was to support children's reading of books.

I agree with Flacka - don't sweat it - your reading corner sounds like it is working just fine.

Aug 1, 2016

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