Classroom Library Book Check-Out

One thing teachers always worry about when building a classroom library is the possibility that books will get lost, stolen, damaged, eaten, etc. There’s no fool-proof way to protect your books if you put them in a classroom library, but you can try to help students be more responsible with books, and let your students know that you value your books. Here’s a really basic sheet I made for keeping track of books. This sheet was mainly the responsibility of the student with the librarian job for the week.

Click to download the Classroom Library Book Checkout sheet.

If there are other things you’d like to keep track of that aren’t on this sheet, feel free to modify it to fit your needs.

If you’re not into using a check out sheet, try using paint stirring sticks (from a Home Depot) with student numbers on it to mark where the student’s book goes. The only down side to this, is that you might forget what book the student checked out. This would work well during a designated reading period time, like Reading Buddies. If students are each supposed to check out a book from your classroom library and return it at a designated time (on the same day as checkout), then there’s no way kids could take it home and lose it, etc.