Caring for Classroom Libraries

It is not uncommon for students to handle books inappropriately. We have found that students who don't have books at home or who haven't had experience with books simply haven't learned how to care for them yet. Each fall, and periodically as the year proceeds (in particular after breaks from school), we take time to do a lesson on caring for our books. 

Caring for Books Lesson

Goal: Teach students how to care for books and introduce them to the Book Hospital

Before the lesson: Gather a variety of books that are showing signs of wear and misuse (torn covers, torn pages, writing in the book, broken spine).

Create a tub labeled "Book Hospital."

Create an I-chart labeled "Caring for Our Books." Write "Students" on the left side and "Teacher" on the right. 

Lesson Procedure:

"We are so fortunate to have wonderful books in our library! We want to take good care of them so we are all able to enjoy them. Some of our books seem to be getting very worn, so today we are going to talk about caring for our books." Hold up the books that have been misused. "Let's look at these books. Any ideas how this may have happened?" Discuss the types of misuse that may cause rips, writing on pages, and so on. "If we were  going to be completely independent caring for our books, what would it look like, feel like, and sound like?" We take a variety of responses, making sure that the following are on the I-chart on the student side:

• Books are held in hands or in a safe place (where they can't be stepped on or sat on).
• Turn pages carefully, starting at top right. 
• Store books in book boxes or in class library book tubs.
• Hold books gently.
• Writing tools are kept away from books.
• Place books in Book Hospital if in need of repair.

What about the teacher side of our I-chart? We add that we will repair books placed in the Book Hospital.

"Who would like to model the correct way to handle a book?" We typically pick a few children at one time to model the I-chart behaviors for the class. While they are modeling, review the chart, reading it over out loud and asking the rest of the students if they are seeing each of the expectations.

End the correct-model session by saying, "If we handle our books the way this group of students modeled, will we have our books to enjoy for a long time? Yes!" For this lesson, we do not do an incorrect model. We then show our students the Book Hospital and let them know that if they find a book that is damaged, they can take a sticky note, place it on the page that is damaged and leave it sticking out and put it in the Book Hospital tub. The reason for the sticky note is that it allows us to go right to the page to make the repairs without having to look through the whole book. If the student wants the book back once it is repaired, they place a sticky note on the front with their name on it. Once the book has been repaired, we place it in the child's book box.

Taking time to teach everyone how to care for books will help ensure that our classroom libraries last for years to come.