Owl Reading Cart

I'm pretty excited because the librarian at our school offered up this wonderful book cart that rolls up free for the first taker. Luckily I was the winner! Here is what I am planning to do with it. First, I took off any old labels that were on it. Then I added these adorable reading owls to it (numbered 1-24). The cart has an identical backside, so that's where the other owls are at. As we have students select their 3-5 books to have on hand at all times for Daily 5, I thought What better place to have my students store their books than on this super handy cart?!! This will help keep my books from being damaged in their desks, and they all have a designated space for storing their books.

I am going to add a piece of cardboard in between each owl to help divide each student's space. When I get that done, I'll post new pictures so you can see the end result!

This is another item that I added to my cart:

Since my students will be able to see any books that other students have "checked out" from my library, I made several of these owl notes (laminated). They say "Please! I noticed you have a book I'd like to check out. When you're done, please see # ___" Disclaimer: I haven't tried this system out yet, but the hope is students will feel like they have a chance at the book they've had their eye on for a while.

Students will write their number on the line with dry-erase marker and stick it in or underneath the book they would like to read next. We'll see how this little experiment goes, but I thought Why not? We have to request holds on books we want from a local library, so why not place a "hold" on a classroom book?