Welcome back everyone!
As promised, I am going to bring you through the rest of my journey to having a flexible/alternative seating classroom. If you didn’t get a chance to read where the journey started last week, you can click here to read about it.
Last week I raved about the success I had with getting Hokki Stools donated through DonorsChoose, and the surprising ease I had with incorporating them into my classroom. Through this success, I read more and more about what else I could do in my classroom, although we were already in the second semester. I was all over the internet and Pinterest looking at my dream classrooms and reading about how they went about it. Bringing in Hokki Stools was the easy part. It didn’t change the layout of my classroom, didn’t change where the kids sat or their day to day routine. To fully flip my classroom would change all of that.
To be honest I was nervous. Could my 6 year olds handle choosing their own spots each day? Could I give up enough control to allow them to do this? Where were they going to keep their supplies if they had no desk? What do I do with all of their current desks and chairs? Well, impulsive me had to dive in head first and figure it out as I went.
The last day before spring break I had Lucy come after school. I had been staring at my classroom for weeks trying to figure out how else I could arrange it to make this work and I needed a fresh pair of eyes. Lucy came in and just like the partners in crime we were, we just went to work. No desks? Let’s try it! We stacked them all out in the hallway to experiment. Now we needed tables. Our building has some extra classrooms with extra furniture in them. We scoped out any room that may have something we could use and came up with a plan. We gathered the furniture we could and I wrote down what we needed.
The plan was to have options for a variety of sensory opportunities. I should note that I am very fortunate to be in a building with an incredibly supportive administrator and custodian. They know of my knowledgeably impulsive ways, and laugh alongside me as I pursue them. You know your own building and situations so you may need to consult with them first. My custodian was kind enough to find somewhere to go with my desks and chairs, but that may not be an option for everyone.
Now for the sensory opportunities. I found 2 long rectangular tables. One of them I had my custodian lower so that one side could have cushions/pillows on the floor to sit on, while the other side had Core disks that students could sit on. The second one I left at standard height and I bought camping chairs for it. I had two circle tables that I used for Hokki Stools and standard chairs. Finally I kept a smaller rectangular table that I had my custodian raise so that students could stand and use them. I also added in a small coffee table with 2 papasan chairs.
Most everything I bought was from Wal-mart, due to the fact that I flipped the classroom in such a short amount of time. This year it has evolved a bit. The standing table is now 2 cafe tables and I have tall stools students can also use there. I also have 2 Runtz ball chairs that the students love. This process was not cheap and was time consuming, but I love how it turned out!
Next week I’ll let you know my challenge of organizing supplies. See you next Thursday!
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