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Building Your Classroom Library on a Budget

I'm back!  :)  Blogging again after just one day, what's gotten into me?  But I just had to come back today and share some tips for building your classroom library on a budget (and brag a bit about some things I found while shopping around today!)

In the summer I compared different options for book bins.  You can see the breakdown of that post by clicking on the picture below:


In my library I actually use the yellow hole-y baskets from Dollar Tree for Listening Center baskets (each basket has one book and an iPod), since they weren't too stable but I loved the color.  The teal baskets from Big Lots we use for our Favorite Author Book bins.  And for our thematic book bins, we use these baskets from Dollar Tree...


Note that these are the rectangular boxes, NOT the 12" by 12" square ones.  They sell out fast as soon as they come in for Dollar Days, but man they are GREAT!

So there's a bit about how to save on setting up your library.  But how do you stock up books on a budget?  Here's my big three (well, four actually):
  1. Thrift Stores (Savers, Goodwill, etc).
  2. Scholastic
  3. Ebay
  4. Local Library Sales
Scholastic's Reading Club is just about my new favorite thing on the planet!  I finally signed up this year and am loving this Bonus Point thing especially.  I scored a whole bunch of new guided science readers for my class for FREE by using the bonus points I got earlier this year.  Maria from Kinder-Craze has a great post on boosting your parent orders- check it out by clicking on the picture below!


But the biggest place where I score my books is thrift stores.  A lot of people have reservations about shopping at Thrift Stores, but I am not one of them!  Savers is hands-down my favorite for picking up picture books.  They are $0.69 each, buy 4 and get the 5th free.  (And let me not forget my other elementary friends- chapter books are only $0.99 each, buy 4 and get the 5th free!)  PLUS you can get a 20% off coupon for making a donation.  So this weekend I was able to buy... 

*insert drum roll please*


More than $100 books for $48!  Not too shabby.  :)  And as you can see, I got some great titles by fabulous authors and a variety of books (including leveled readers!)  And that's not all I bought...


Isn't this gossip bench the most AWESOME THING you have EVER seen?!?!  (Please excuse my excessive capitalization and poor punctuation, I am just beyond excited!)  I scored this sweet thing for only $20.  I am so excited because I was dying to get a piece of furniture to use as a divider in my classroom library and at last I have found it!  

So... hopefully I'll be seeing you soon for a Monday Made It!  :)  Have a great weekend and I hope you got some good tips for building your classroom library on a budget!


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