Alternative seating in action

The room

OH WOW.  Hello!

Needless to say I've been a busy bee since August.  And I'm not the best at keeping up with blogs.  But here I am at last to post pictures of my room.

It all started because my room is so small, remember?  Well, I couldn't possibly fit 20 desks in there and keep myself sane.  (I hate the visual "noise" of all those metal legs, not to mention a bazillion things to trip over and maneuver around all day).  So I began with a simple idea of three tables.  Two at normal first grade height, and one with the legs taken off.

Here they are. Not too beautiful yet, but I like the different levels.  Adds some dimension.

Next I added our big rainbow table and our bucket chairs. (Don't mind the mess!)

I got five heavy duty buckets from the Home Depot.  It actually worked out perfectly, because all of the manipulatives for our math program fit in them.  Which is amazing, because I literally don't have room for them anywhere else... :)



Next I made my library.  Now I consider this to by a real work of art.  Since I am so cramped for space, I needed to condense my library into the smallest space possible.  I ended up making it like this with two "isles" for easy and efficient book shopping.

I use the Journeys Leveled Readers on top (they go from A to L in my room), then everything underneath it is categories of interest.  To see how I categorized my books, see my library post.

After that, it was really just about adding the actual seating.  I got my exercise balls for one of the big tables, regular chairs for the other one, then for the little table I filled a body pillow with a BUNCH of bubble wrap.  

And since you are wondering, no, the bubble wrap does not pop when they sit on it.... but it does make noise when they move around on it.  They seem to like the noise, and it doesn't drive me crazy. Win-win!

Things to buy

Here is a list of things I'll be needing in order to get my room ready for alternative seating (if it's crossed off that means I recently got it)

• fabric for bean bag chairs and bucket chairs
• t shirts (to make t shirt pillows)
• bubble wrap (for stuffing)
• buckets
• exercise balls
• pillow cases (in sets of 3 to make a pillowcase sleeping bag)
• book boxes (magazine holders from Ikea)
• packing tape (to reinforce said book boxes)
• unstuffed long dog toy (to make a weighted lap/neck wrap for my barometer child)
• stuffing (rice/beans or polybeads) and scent for said weighted lap/neck wrap

Alternative Seating

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I got the OK from my principal to scrap my desk and chairs and use alternative seating.  I have been exploring the idea of it on the internet, and people are generally saying one of two things.  There is the first group (primarily made up of veteran teachers) that think it is crazy to ditch the desks for this new age practice, and a second group of teachers who have tried it, loved it, and have never even thought about going back to it.  Seriously, I have not even found a person who has tried it and hated it.  Sure, it is going to be hard to have to teach them to be able to do... everything... from literally anywhere in the classroom, and I'm sure that it will take a lot of time to teach the DOs and DON'Ts at the beginning of the year, but I am doing Daily 5!  A part of Daily 5 is teaching them how to be extremely independent and giving them a choice on what to do and where to sit (or lie, or stand, or crouch).

I have been doing a lot of research and I have many things that I want to try next year.  Unfortunately, the classroom that I am moving into is a lot smaller than the one that I am used to.  In fact, it is small by anyone's standards.  I was given the choice, and I actually chose this room though.

The room that I oh-so-professionally hi-lighted in yellow is my new room.  The room above it was my old room.  Needless to say, I am in a closet.  The problem is, is that when my school was being built, they never intended on having more than one teacher per grade level.  Well the numbers were higher than expected last year and they hired a couple of teachers to teach some combo classes.  This year, apparently the numbers have increased again because there will be TWO TEACHERS PER GRADE LEVELS!! I could not be more excited!!  It will be so awesome to bounce ideas off of someone that is teaching the same standards and going through the same grade level behavior drama!  As of now, they have not hired anyone to be my other half... but I did get an email telling me that they have given someone a second interview and they are considering hiring her!  I hope we get along!

Anywho, here is a list of the things that I'll be using as alternative seating:

X      exercise balls

X      couch cushions

X      t-shirt pillows (DIY)

X     bean bag chairs (DIY)

X     bucket seats (DIY)

X      crate seats (DIY)

X     PCV camp chairs (DIY)

X     Rugs, blankets, pillows, the usual...

These links will take you to the Pinterest pins that I got my inspiration from, but I haven't taken my own pics yet.  They will come soon!  Let me know what you think of my ideas!