Best Classroom Ideas: Wow Kids With Colorful Book Baskets!

As anyone in education (from home-school parents to tenured public school teachers) knows, book baskets are kind of a big deal. If, however, you’re new to the game and find yourself thinking, “Book baskets? What are book baskets?” then you’ve come the right place. Today, I’m here to tell you some basics as well as give you a few specific book basket ideas for your classroom. After reading this post, you’ll be well prepared to get your classroom library set up and ready for eager minds!

So what exactly are book baskets? Essentially, book baskets provide a system of organizing your library by theme. It allows students to focus on one general area of study at a time while teaching them about general organization and categorization.

There are a few basic elements.

The main element is, as you might suspect, the basket itself. You can get them in brilliant colors (as our title suggests) of all different shapes, but you can also get them in more neutral colors if your classroom calls for it. I recommend Really Good Stuff Plastic Storage Baskets in rainbow colors or ECR4Kids Bendy Bins for simple colorful ones, and if you think you’ll add a lot of props (keep reading to see what I mean by props), I’d recommend the Storex Classroom Caddy. 

Another important element is the book basket labels. The sky is the limit with these. Honestly, if you’re a crafty person, you can fashion some pretty fancy ones with a trip to the craft store and some basic computer know-how. However, if you enjoy the ease of shopping for them, I’ve put some specific suggestions below.

Now that you have the baskets and the labels, what exactly do you put in your book baskets? As you might expect, you add books! Shocker, I know! The main thing here is to find books that match the theme or designation for each basket. Finally, you can add some extras to your baskets depending on the topic. For example, if you’re teaching younger children about animals, you can add pieces for a felt board or add figurines. While this is optional, it does add a more tactile dimension to your baskets.

Now that you know the basics, let me show you a few great ways you can use book baskets to really wow your kids!

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