THROWBACK THURSDAY~What’s in YOUR book box?

Hi, Friends!  How are ya? It’s Thursday…time for another installment of Throwback Thursday! I absolutely bloggy *LOVE* Cara Caroll! She is the absolute sweetest! Her posts are always fun and completely crack me up!




I cracked open my copy of The Next Step in Guiding Reading yesterday and flew through the first chapter  with highlighter, sticky notes and pen in hand! I absolutely LOVE teaching reading and my literacy block is my FAVORITE time of day! It’s the kid’s favorite too! As I read the first chapter and saw how it aligns so wonderfully with The Daily Five, I thought back to how much easier stations became this past year after incorporating D5. Talk about….take a load off! Whew!




One of the concepts mentioned in Chapter One of the book was providing students with individual book boxes, sooooo I thought for this Throwback Thursday, I’d share with you what we kept in ours this past year.  It was a pretty popular post. I hope you find it helpful. 

It was originally posted October 2012.  Enjoy!

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As we’ve moved into week 7 of school, we’ve practiced and launched all of the components of Daily 5.  One thing my kids love the most about it…….??? Their book box! They carry those things around from spot to spot like their lives depend on it! 

Well, except for a couple that just leave it sitting any old where! Their book boxes just may come up missing! And then we’ll see how well they keep up with it! Ha!



Our little $1 boxes are holding up well and the kids are filling them with lots of goodies! They’ve become a real important piece to keep our day running smoothly.  They’ve also helped me to keep the copy cops at bay because we use them as part of our morning work routine too.  No more worksheets…..well, at least not as many.

Each morning when students come in, they put their personal belongings away.  Their Take Home folder goes into a bin.  They indicate their lunch choice for the day and then…..and then….and then? They grab their book box! It’s the first and last thing we use each day.

They get their book box and head to a “read to self” spot also known as the pieces of blue painter’s tape stuck around the room on the floor! It helps to spread them out, so no one is sitting too close to anyone that might break their stamina.  Works like a charm!



After finding a comfy, cozy spot each student reads a book or two (of their choice) from their book box.  Once they’ve finished reading, they each move to their desk to write about the book that they read.  This is done at their own pace, so some may be reading while others are just getting unpacked.  Some may be writing or completing a writing from the day before.  Everyone is busy becoming a better reader or writer.

Inside of each friend’s book box is a leveled reader, a decodable reader, a reader’s notebook, 3 “good fit books of their choosing and a folder.

On Friday afternoons, we swap the leveled reader for a new one for the following week and return the 3 “good fit” books back to the classroom library.  The decodable reader stays put for the entire 6 weeks because it contains many stories that follow the phonics patterns of our main story each week.  Can you imagine how much these repeated readings will help to build their fluency by year’s end? *LOVE*



On Monday mornings, students are allowed to visit the classroom library to “I-PICK”  3 new “good fit” books. 



Inside of each kiddos folder is their personal coaching sheet.  This sheet is a handy reference tool for “reading to someone”.  If a friend should get stuck on a word, they’ll have the strategies that we’ll be using during shared and guided reading to help each other read words.  Rather than simply tell the word, we want to help our friends to offer either coaching or time {to figure out the word}. 

Sooo, if you’d like to toss one into your student’s book boxes too, click the pic below to grab one!



I’d love to know…..What’s in YOUR book box?