I will be a new teacher next school year (K-3, preferably 2 or 3). I have been slowing buying books here and there to build up my classroom library... like if I see them really cheap at books stores or amazon, places like that. Any advice on where to get inexpensive books for this age groups? I was thinking yard sales would be a goo place too. I like in the Tampa area if you know of specific stores too.
yard sales, scholastic warehouse sales. I would wait until you get your first teaching position. You may not end up in the primary grades. I did what you are doing. I had about 100 books for kindergarten, first grade. Guess what I am teaching nine grade levels. I had no books for the older kids. I have been buying a lot of books this year from scholastic. They have 99 cent sales during the school year.
Thrift stores are a great place. There is one thrift store (run by a church) in my area that sells used books for fairly cheap. I think hard backs are .50 and paper are .25. I've gotten alot of books from there. Another you might check out are libary sales. Our public library does this once a year to clear out old, unused books.
During the year, send home and encourage the purchase of SCHOLASTIC books (from those tiny catalogs). Scholastic awards you with TONS of bonus points which you can put towards free books. This is where I receive most of my books. This is a quick fix during the school year because you will get too busy to look for books!
I have gotten so many great books at the thrift stores that I had to stop collecting. I have well over a thousand books. Sometimes I even find them for 5 for $1! I never buy dirty or messed up books, either. Once I lucked out and got 2 class sets of 6 in the original wrappers from Scholastic.
Scholastic, yard sales, thrift stores are all great resources. I've also gotten large lots of books on Ebay.
Believe it or not, I buy most of my books from my library. Every few weeks I head over to the library where they have a bookcase of "for sale" stuff. It varies, and there are weeks that I go and come home with nothing, but quite often I walk out with 20 to 30 books! They sell paper backs for 25 cents- 25 CENTS!! And hardcovers for 50 cents. On top of that, my librarians are lovely women. When I first started doing this in September a few of them would ask me, very hush hush, if I was a teacher. When I said yes, they just whispered, "I think 10 dollars should cover it," even if I had WAY more than 10 dollars worth of books in my hands. Now that they know me, they automatically "guesstimate" how much I am buying and round it down for me. It's a long shot, I know I have friends whose libraries either don't do this at all, or have no selection, but it's worth a shot!
Scholastic Book Orders (I buy them for myself since I don't have a class of students and get bonus points too!), Scholastic Warehouse Sales, We have traveling book companies that bring books into our lounge too, Amazon, Ebay, Yard Sales (Look for ones that list children's items!), Thrift Stores, Goodwill Also I think there is a website called paperback swap I have not checked it out personally but I know you can swap books you don't want for ones you do for only the cost of shipping if I am thinking correctly.
I have never used this website, but a friend recommended it: http://www.bookcloseouts.com/default.asp?N=3294&merch=kids&rid=korner
Another thing is that if you are moving into a room that was previously occupied, there may be quite a lot of books there for you. I am finishing my first year as a teacher, second grade, and I went to a ton of garage sales before the year started. That was great. I was surprised when I got to my room and there was already a decent library waiting for me. One more thing, we do AR at our school and if you are doing this as well, you may try and find books on the AR list. That is what the kids will flock to the most, because we do an hour of AR a day and they have to read and test, read and test. I have a problem with my books getting torn up. No respect for them. How do I solve this? Anyone know?
Check out E-Bay - I bought a ton on there. Some other good sites are www.craigslist.com (just find your city and state and click on the link) and www.alibris.com. When I was in college I used Alibris all the time to buy my college textbooks - I saved a TON of money. But I've also used it to buy books for my classroom. Especially the books that you want that are out of print.
If you have a "Half-Priced Books" bookstore, they have clearance books as low at 25 cents. I do agree that you should hold off awhile because you have no idea where you will be teaching. And books for 1st grade are on complete different levels for a high reading 3rd grader. I would focus on books now that are classics, books to use for instruction, etc. Charlotte's Web, Judy Blume classics, etc. Look online for books that you can use to teach with- Fraction Pizza, picture books to use to teach comprehension strategies (Cynthia Rylant, Eve Bunting, Patricia Polacco, etc.)- focus on author sets so you can do author studies. Hope this helps!
i'm in clearwater, but i don't know of specific stores... i will say definately hit garage sales! i have had a TON of luck at them.
Swapmeets! There is this huge outdoor one by my house, so maybe there is one around your area...but there are some vendors that sell used books there (decent to new condition) and they are SUPER cheap. She also trades books, so if you have a lot of books you read and won't touch again or something you can try to trade them somewhere maybe? I know that won't last forever, but still.
i looked on ebay earlier this morning. there were tons of books! i typed in "children's book lots" there were a lot that were like 12 books for $3 and things like that.
Someone might have already mentioned this already, but even though you know you want to teach grades 2 or 3, get a variety of levels. In second or third grade you'll probably get kids who are reading at a kindergarten level and then some who are reading at a fifth grade level. I go to Savers for most of my book. They are usually .69 a piece, sometimes they have deals.
Florida Specific ~ Alachua County Friends of the Library Sale - look on their website when it is...lots of great books for really CHEAP (go early) Gainesville Book Company- when I still lived in Gainesville I would go there and buy tons of books (they are open every other weekend, or one weekend a month. Call them to get their schedule. Again, Great books for cheap. These two places are worth the drive from Tampa and Clearwater areas. If I lived anywhere near there I would go back.
