Flexible Seating in the Elementary Classroom

Monday, August 9, 2021


Flexible seating has helped students focus in the classroom for many years. From younger children all the way to high school students. These kids need to move when they learn. Flexible seating is the key. How do you start a flexible seating classroom? Begin with routines, goals, expectation and, of course, seating options. Grab my freebie to help guide you in the right direction to start your very own flexible seating classroom for your students. You will have your students focused in no time at all.
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 has helped students focus in the classroom for many years. From younger children all the way to high school students. These kids need to move when they learn. Flexible seating is the key. How do you start a flexible seating classroom? Begin with routines, goals, expectation and, of course, seating options. Grab my freebie to help guide you in the right direction to start your very own flexible seating classroom for your students. You will have your students focused in no time at all.
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. 

Flexible seating has helped students focus in the classroom for many years. From younger children all the way to high school students. These kids need to move when they learn. Flexible seating is the key. How do you start a flexible seating classroom? Begin with routines, goals, expectation and, of course, seating options. Grab my freebie to help guide you in the right direction to start your very own flexible seating classroom for your students. You will have your students focused in no time at all.
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. 

Flexible seating has helped students focus in the classroom for many years. From younger children all the way to high school students. These kids need to move when they learn. Flexible seating is the key. How do you start a flexible seating classroom? Begin with routines, goals, expectation and, of course, seating options. Grab my freebie to help guide you in the right direction to start your very own flexible seating classroom for your students. You will have your students focused in no time at all.
Clipboard storage for the class. 

Flexible seating has helped students focus in the classroom for many years. From younger children all the way to high school students. These kids need to move when they learn. Flexible seating is the key. How do you start a flexible seating classroom? Begin with routines, goals, expectation and, of course, seating options. Grab my freebie to help guide you in the right direction to start your very own flexible seating classroom for your students. You will have your students focused in no time at all.
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. 


Flexible seating has helped students focus in the classroom for many years. From younger children all the way to high school students. These kids need to move when they learn. Flexible seating is the key. How do you start a flexible seating classroom? Begin with routines, goals, expectation and, of course, seating options. Grab my freebie to help guide you in the right direction to start your very own flexible seating classroom for your students. You will have your students focused in no time at all.
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 



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