Classroom Library Off Bounds...WhAt?!

Hello everyone!

Let me just say....WHEW! It has been one of those weeks! It has not only been crazy in my third grade class but also in my little hometown. Let me just give you a throw down of my week. Earlier this week my town said good-bye to a sweet 15 year old boy who has been battling heart problems since birth. They laid him to rest on Wednesday morning. My husband, who is a funeral director, got a call after they buried the little boy about a 16 year girl who committed suicide. This has been the 5th teenage suicide in my small hometown this YEAR! And the 12th suicide in my small county this year. I have no idea what is going on in our little community but if you are a praying person please pray for our town. Also Wednesday one of  the largest abandoned historical buildings in my town was put on fire! We had to call all the surrounding fire departments to help us out. The house across the street also was completely damaged from the fire. After getting the news of this young girl on Wednesday, Thursday my school was put on lockdown. A REAL LIFE lockdown situation. We were finishing up lunch when we got the all call to take positions. Our 3rd and 4th graders ran to the gym. We were later moved to the lockers rooms. We were on lockdown for an 1 hour and 45 minutes! There was a man a block away from the school who tried to rape a woman and had a gun on him and ran away when the neighbors heard the woman screaming. It was insane!! THEN early Friday morning we had ANOTHER fire to an old abandoned building (just a block away from the previous fire). This fire also caused a fire to our Pregnancy Care Clinic and was completely damaged :(. We have no idea how these fires started or who started them. But this has been a very devastating week in my hometown.

Moving on to some classroom news.

Wednesday I was going to have the "Desk Police" come and see who had messy or clean desks. Well, the "Desk Police" (I) saw that our library was a complete MESS! I couldn't believe what my library looked like and how the kids did not take care of my books at all! So the "Desk Police" decided to tape off the library until further notice.

I first left them a note on the SMARTboard

Let me just say, that my students were in complete shock!


Here is the whole library.

A close up of the messiness!!

So our library was off limits from Wednesday to Friday. I plan on re-opening the library on Monday. But of course with some stipulations. They are now only going to be able to check out books on Monday only. Monday is our only day where we don't have a pull out so we have the extra time. They are only allowed to check out one book. Check in and Check out will only be done on Mondays. I think what I will do, is if I see students treating my books with care and respecting everything, I will allow them to check out more than one book at a time.

We will see how this goes.

Have you ever done this in your own classroom? I'm curious how it went for you?

I think that this class in particular needed the shock value. They are terrible at listening. We are going on our 7th week of school and I am STILL constantly going over rules and procedures. They just don't seem to get it! So frustrating. I hope this helps, and they get the point!

Have a great week!