Rain Gutter Bookshelves

Rain gutters are an inventive way to organize your classroom library books. They are especially useful in smaller classrooms where there isn't space for big, bulky bookshelves. I have rain gutter bookshelves in my own classroom underneath my chalkboard, which is an otherwise wasted space. I use this area to display monthly/seasonal books or books on a specific topic that we're studying. They were cheap and relatively easy to install!

I'm attaching a picture I found online, so you can get a visual of what these look like on a wall.

Here's another (closer) pic of rain gutter book shelves!

Oh I love these!!!!!
Our principal put these in our building last summer and they are awesome. WE have them down the halls for AR books (3 rows per wall.)
Also I have a row under my chalk board that I keep holiday and seasonal books. Then in my reading corner (I have a bath tub) the gutters are around the tub 3 high.

They are plastic and slide in the thing that is mounted on the wall. Awesome Awesome Awesome and dont waste space like book shelves.

she bought ours at National Home Center, but I am sure any home store would work.

I use rain gutters attached to a heavy board material and lean them underneath my chalkboard. The books I display there are the books that the children check out in my name when we go to the library as a whole class to restock the reading corner. This way they pick the books they want to read during SSR time. I keep my personal books in crates according to genre, but I do keep out those books that I like to use for lessons- then those are called my special memory books.

My son worked for a company that put up rain gutters. He brought a scrap piece home for me to put in my classroom. They come in several different colors, and you can put them in rows if you want. A piece about the length of your chalkboard would probably run around 10 or 12 dollars. Some places might be persuaded to give you scrap pieces if you ask them nicely. I just have the one piece under my chalkboard. I don't have enough wall space to put up more.

I put gutters in my classroom. I put them in other places in the room too, but I also put two rows of gutters under the board in my room. I put one close to the floor and the other about 12 inches above it. They hold a ton of books and then the kids can see the front of the book from the shelf. They look so fresh and clean. It is so nice. Get them at Lowe's not Home Depot. The ones from Lowes have littel ridges in them, that hold the books a lot better. I think you would love the shelves. All you do is buy the brackets. Put them in the wall and snap the gutters in. It wasn't very hard.

I have rain gutter 'shelves' in my room. I didn't install them, it was a school wide project a few years ago and the custodians installed them into the cement block walls. I think they are great, they display books so that my students can see the covers as they browse. I put colored dots on the gutters and my books so that the books could be returned to the correct location.

I had one under my front board. I used this to hold some of my most frequently used teacher manuals and library books that I took out on our current units. Students knew that the books from the front gutter must be returned there and were not to be kept in desks. This helped me keep track of my books.

I also had one under my back board which I used to display student work/projects.

A draw back: it limits future room arrangements. I cannot remove/ move my gutters and so cannot put any furniture against the wall in that part of my room. Before you install make sure you are sure of the placement in the room.
Tip: Make sure they are far enough apart so that your tall books fit. I have one shelf just for paper backs because there isn't enough room for taller books.
Place shelves low enough to be reachable by students. My top shelf is useless because my students can't reach it.

Also- one teacher in my school used spray paint for plastic (made by Krylon?) and painted her gutters in primary colors. Much more interesting than plain old white.

Hi there!

I have rain gutters mounted in my classroom for my class library. Some are mounted directly on the cinder block walls. My husband drilled holes, inserted sinkers, and then screwed the gutters directly to the wall. They have been up and used daily since August, and there is no sign of them pulling away.

In addition to mounting them on the cinder block walls, we also purchased a piece of plywood (4' x 8')with white laminate on it. We turned it sideways and mounted gutters directly to it. Then, we positioned it on one of my chalkboard ledges and drilled the top of it into the cinder block located just above the chalkboard. (I know some classrooms have limited chalkboards, but in my room they are on every single wall!)

Hope this information is helpful! I truly love using them and I have over 400 books displayed on them!

My best,
Jacki

I also have rain gutters in my classroom. I just got one long one and cut it into thirds and used concrete screws to hang them up. I also got these little plastic bracket things to place on either end to support the gutter. I use mine to display current books or topics we are going over. The rain gutter library on the link was a bit overwhelming, but, done in a more subtle way, I think it can help "advertise" the books we have available.

Also...I heard somewhere you can get them in different colors...or at the very least, you can paint them before hanging up to go with your theme. My partner teacher was thinking about doing a Mary Englebright theme on hers. Just a thought!:)

I opnce read a post on this site to use plastic gutters for book display space. Basically, get gutters cut to length you like, and screw in- use the supports that come with gutters as well for added strength. I am going to do this at the end of the summer to use some odd spaces ( under blackboard with them related books to display, and a few narrow spots that I plan to put gutters above one another) I think it will look great and encourage more browsing) Good luck!