What are In Those Boxes???

In my classroom, I have a bookcase full of magazine files which are from

IKEA.  They are plain white and cheap. (You can view them here) I used

to let my kids decorate their own on the first day of school and while

it was a nice time filler for the first day of school, I realized that

1) A bit of me cringed when I had to look at a magazine file that

was scribbled over and misspelled the whole year

2) Most likely 99.9% of the students toss their magazine file

in the garbage 2 minutes after they finish 4th grade

So...

I went ahead and decorated them myself.

A little scrapbook paper and glue does a magazine file some good.

I put some packaging tape over the paper to make them more durable

and added numbers so I didn't have to redo them every year.

This is their second year.  I might need to replace them next year,

but we'll see- they look pretty good so far.

Anyways, on to what is actually kept in the boxes...

I've tried doing these a few different ways, but this year I'm all

about keeping it simple.

Students keep the book they are reading as well as a

reading journal in their book boxes.  We may add some other

book information as the year goes on, but to start with- that is it.

The notebook looks like this:

(I can't figure out how to turn it around, so just turn your head, I guess)

On the inside of notebook cover there is a question guide.

The questions range from-

*What genre is the book?*

to

*What character are you most like and why?*

On the other page is a list of what each student is reading.

Here is the inside of one of my student's notebooks.

They pick the question each time they independently read,

write the date so I know what book it goes with and

writes down their thoughts and answers.

It's quick, easy and keeps each student accountable for their reading.