Flexible Seating in the Elementary Classroom

Flexible Seating Classroom for 25 Second Graders

Are you thinking about bringing flexible seating to your classroom this school year? Not sure where to start? Since everyone has different teaching styles and classroom layouts, flexible seating is exactly what it says...flexible! There are countless ways to implement flexible seating so it fits your style and students' needs. I have been doing flexible seating for five years. Three years in second grade and two years in my fourth and fifth grade resource room. These models were very different yet both successful.  

Click here to download my free Flexible Seating Checklist to help you get started on this new adventure. 

*Disclaimer, I am giving you my opinions and personal experience with flexible seating. It might not work for you or your students. 

Parent Concerns

People tend to question change and this situation will be no different. Most of your students' parents might have never heard of flexible seating and only remember sitting in a desk through their elementary years. The key is to make them feel comfortable with your decision to give their child the best education possible with flexible seating. Tell them your rules and expectations with flex seating up front. Provide them with literature about flexible seating. If parents are firm with wanting to keep their child in a desk, have that option available. When their child comes home from school, chances are, they will be begging their parents to let them sit in the flex options you have provided for the other children in class. 

Tip: If you are the first person in your building to implement flexible seating, ask your administration for their support. Explain your reasoning for flexible seating and why you feel it is important for your students. This way, if you have any parent concerns, the admin will have your back. 

Seating Options

Getting the seating for your classroom is the most fun. There are so many types of seating out there and you can get as creative as you want. I have compiled a free list of flexible seating options for all budgets. The best way to get the more expensive seating options for your class is to make an Amazon Wishlist and send it out to family and friends or create a Donors Choose page and see if your project can get funded. Double check with your district and make sure they approve of their employees using this site. My district expects all teachers to get approval before posting any projects on the site. 

Tip: Look around your own home and see if you have any chairs or small tables you can bring to your classroom for your students. 

Flexible seating classroom in full effect.

Seating Storage

Finding a way to keep your seating organized can sometimes be a challenge. I like to stack chairs and cushions or use large plastic crates for storage of beach chairs and scoop rockers. Anything that closes over and hides seating is always a huge plus for me. I love using a large wooden toy chest to store carpet squares and yoga mats. The kids can use it as a seating option too. Double duty! The most important part about seating storage is that your students know where each seat belongs and they put them back at the end of each day. This will help keep your seats from breaking and your classroom will look neat at the end of the day. 

Tip: Have your class wipe down each seat before going home each night. The seats will be clean and ready to go for the next day. 

Student Materials

I'm sure you are wondering where to store your students' supplies. Again, every classroom is set up differently but you can definitely make it work. I have lockers in my classroom so I was able to assign two children per locker. They each had a book bin for their novels, notebooks and workbooks. I hung a basket above and that is where they stored their pencil cases. 

Lockers for student material storage.

Finally, each student in my class also got a storage dry erase clipboard. This is where they kept unfinished work they needed to complete. I stored those in crates on my back shelf. 

Clipboard storage for the class. 

Student clipboards

Tip: Try to keep all your students' materials in one central location or area. The more spread out the items are, the more unorganized they will be. These clipboards are right next to my students' lockers. 

How Will They Choose?

Part of our afternoon routine was to wipe down the classroom and choose our seats for the next day. right before my students walked out the door I allowed them to pick their seat for the next morning. I let them choose in the afternoon because when my students arrive in the morning there are a lot of things to do. I want them to check in, order lunch, unpack, hand in homework and get right to work. I also don't want children to feel discouraged if they don't get to choose a seat because they arrived late to school that day. Choosing the day before gives them the confidence to know what they are doing right away in the morning. 

Tip: Change the way you choose students to pick seats each day. Most of the time I choose randomly but you can change the way you have them choose. 

This is how my students keep track of their seating. It has changed over the years and now I use actual images of the seats in our classroom. 

Model Model Model

The best way for children to understand what you expect of them is to model the behavior. This works with flexible seating too. Show your students the proper way to sit in their new seats so they do not get hurt, break the furniture, or distract their classmates. You can even take a picture of yourself sitting in the seat properly and post the photo on the wall for them to review so they don't forget. From time to time I've had to move students who could not sit properly in their seats, but I reviewed the proper way to sit and I did not need to address the issue again.

Tip: Give your students a chance to try all of the seating options correctly before they choose one to sit in. Make sure they are safe and know the proper way to behave in the seats to do their best work. 

In my free Flexible Seating Checklist I include some examples of rules you can implement in your classroom for flexible seating as well as some other valuable ideas. 

I hope you are able to try flexible seating in your classroom this school year. If you have any questions, positive comments, or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me and we can chat. I hope you have a wonderful school year. 

Happy Teaching! 

Kelly 

Engaging Classroom Games for any Subject: Series IV

This is week four of Engaging Games for any Classroom Series. The last two engagement games will be introduced. You can use these games in your classroom for any grade and any content. All you need are problems written on tiny pieces of paper. 

• If you missed week one’s games, click here for the post.  

• To check out week two’s games, click here for the post. 

• To read about the games in week three, click here for the post. 

Join my email list for more games like these and an exclusive EDITABLE math freebie to get you started right away.

This week’s games are called Surgery & Sticky Hands. 

Surgery

Materials: 

- Tiny Problems cut out. (One set per group-different colors for each group)

 

- Tiny Problems Recording Sheet

- One glue stick per group

- Doctor’s Clipboard Freebie (One copy per group in their team color.)

- Large silhouette of “Operation Man” drawn on butcher paper. (I trace it from the Smart Board)

*The following items are optional but will make your students feel like they are real doctors. 

- Clipboards

- Hair nets 

- Gloves 

- Tweezers 

- Surgical masks 

- Name tags that have their last names on them. Ex: Dr. Cahill

- ER sound effects for background sounds

Set up: 

Split your class up into groups. Lay the “Operation Man” out onto the floor in the center of the room and tape the edges down. Fold all the Tiny Problems up and place them on the body of “Operation Man.” Each group should get the Doctor’s Clipboard Freebie for their team.

If you choose to use the operation items for your students, pass those out in advance so they are “dressed” and ready to perform surgery. 

How to play: 

• Tell the students they will be giving surgery to the sick patient in the operating room. The object is for each group to remove the germs (Tiny Problems) from the patient by solving them.

• Split students into teams and assign each team a specific color. Give them 15 seconds to establish an order of who is going first to last.

• One person at a time will retrieve a germ with their tweezers and carry it back to their group. 

• When they return, they will read the question to the group and EVERYONE needs to answer it.

• When the whole team has answered, they write it in the recording sheet in the corresponding numbered box. 

• When that question is answered by every group member, it can be glued to the Doctor’s Clipboard Freebie for their team. 

• The next student is off to grab another germ. This continues until all the team’s colored germs are glued to the clipboard. 

There are many ways you can change up this activity to suit your needs. If you have a small class, you can make an “Operation Man” for each group. You can even partner students up or give each child their own color so they can work independently. 

Sticky Hands

Materials: 

- Tiny Problems cut out. - Make a separate color for each group to collect. 

- Tiny Problems recording sheet

- sticky hands (Amazon link)

Set up: 

Put all of the Tiny Problems face down on a table, desk or flat surface. Split your students into groups in advance. Each group member gets a sticky hand.

How to play: 

• Students get out a Tiny Problems recording sheet and a pencil.

• Give your students 15 seconds to establish an order of who is going first to last.

• One student at a time will head to the Tiny Problems table, shoot their sticky hand at the table to pick up a problem and bring it back to their group. 

NOTE: This DOES have a learning curve and some students might struggle at first. I tell them to try three times then just bring a problem back to the group. If they pick up more than one problem, they should return all but one to the table and head back to their group. 

• EVERYONE in the group needs to answer the question.

• When the whole team has an answer, they write it in the recording sheet in the corresponding numbered box. 

• The next student to retrieve a Tiny Problem needs to return the old problem, face down, to the table before “sticky handing” a new one for the group.  

• This continues until all the Tiny Problems are solved.  

You can go over the answers in class or collect the recording sheets. If you want to make it more competitive, set a timer and the group who completes the most questions correctly wins!

Thank you for following along with this blog series, Engaging Games for any Classroom. I hope you found it helpful and you were able to take away some ideas for your classroom. Please feel free to join my email list for more games like this and an exclusive EDITABLE math freebie to get you started right away. Have a great day. 

Happy Teaching!

Kelly

Engaging Classroom Games for any Subject: Series III

        This is week three of Engaging Games for any Classroom Series. Two more engagement games will be introduced that you can use in your classroom for any grade and any content. All you need are problems written on tiny pieces of paper. 

• If you missed week one’s games, click here for the post.  

• To check out week two’s games, click here for the post. 

Subscribe to my email list for more games and an exclusive EDITABLE math freebie to get you started right away.

This week's games are called Egg Hunt and Jenga.

Egg Hunt

Materials: 

-Tiny Problems cut out. (Only one set.) 

 

-Tiny Problems recording sheet

-Plastic Eggs (one per question) 

-Clipboards (optional)

Set up: 

Place one Tiny Problems question inside each egg.  Write the number of the question on the outside of the egg so your students know where to write their answer on their recording sheet. Finally, hide the eggs around your classroom. Be sure they are in places you want your students looking. I usually hide them in plain sight. This way they are easy to find when the activity is over. 

How to play: 

• The teacher will tell the children they are going on an egg hunt. 

• When they find an egg they must answer the question on their recording sheet. 

• Before they move onto another egg, they MUST put the question back in the egg and return it EXACTLY where they found it. This way, their friends can answer the question too. 

There are many other options out there if you choose not to use plastic eggs. Use what works for your classroom and your students. I use the eggs all year round because I had tons of them at home. Thankfully, I didn’t need to buy anything new for this activity.

Jenga

Materials: 

- Tiny Problems cut out. (Only one set.) 

 

- Dry erase boards for students to record answers.

- 2 to 6 Jenga games

Set up: 

Split your class up into groups based on the number of Jenga games you have. Have the Jenga game set up in the center of the group. 

How to play: 

• The teacher will read a question aloud to the class.

• All students will answer on their recording sheet or their dry erase board. 

• The teacher will ask the students to flip their answer. 

• The teacher tells the class the correct answer.

• Any child who gets the answer correct will take a turn to pull a Jenga block from the tower. 

• This continues until the first tower falls. 

• Restack and  play again. 

                       

There are other versions of this game too. You can print a copy of Tiny Problems for each group to have their own set and the kids can take turns answering. You can just circulate the room and be a watchful eye. 

Stores also sell colored Jenga towers. You can make color coded Tiny Problems questions to match the blocks as well. Each color can be a different subject or concept you taught.

For social distancing this year, I bought the mini Jenga towers from The Dollar Tree. Each student had their own Jenga tower and played alone as they answered the questions I read aloud. 

I’ve also played BACKWARDS Jenga. All the mini Jenga blocks were up on my front table and children were asked Tiny Problems. As they answered correctly on their dry erase board, they earned a block. As they answered questions, they needed to build a tower using all the blocks they earned. 

There are so many different ways to incorporate Jenga tower games into your teaching. I like full class participation so I always have all my students answer the questions. This way, no one is waiting around for a turn to answer. 

That’s all for this week. Come back for the last three games in the series that will keep up the excitement and engagement in your classroom. Please feel free to join my email list for more game ideas like this and an exclusive EDITABLE math freebie to get you started right away. Thanks for stopping by and I will see you next week. 

Happy Teaching! 

Kelly