Getting Started with Flexible Seating

So a new school year has started and I am going full force into flexible seating. The teachers’ first day is coming up soon and the students come the day after Labor Day, so I have been really busy setting up the classroom. I wanted to give you a peek at how I am getting started with flexible seating this year. Also, if you want my free Flexible Seating Ebook, click here to grab it (or on the image at the end of this post).

The first picture above shows the wobble stools, which are one of the first things I got for the room. I know they are also sold under the name of Hokki stools but I found out that Scholastic has these wobble stools in their teacher supply store AND that I could use my bonus points to get some. I started with two (they were about 2.400 bonus points) and then did a couple more book orders and got enough points that I ended up with four stools!

I brought in some old camp chairs from home and grabbed some IKEA pillows for them (or the kids can just toss them on the floor if they aren’t comfortable). Our school theme is HEART and I thought that heart pillow was great. I also bought a milk crate from Home Depot in which I will probably put books. The end table is also from IKEA. I bought one in the spring and they were $7.99 but I went back to buy another last week and they were at $9.99. Still very cheap! The dome light on the table is solar powered and also from IKEA.

I also kept a couple of desks (four) in case some kiddos prefer the desks and traditional chairs.

I put together supply baskets with pencils, glue sticks, crayons and markers for each table. I saw this cute idea on Pinterest. I bought little chalkboard signs at AC Moore and labeled them with addresses from children’s literature! Here is 4 Klickitat Street, which you might remember as Ramona Quimby’s address.

I took the legs off of a round table (and figured out how to screw the legs on better so they weren’t wobbly like they had been for the past ten years!) Now it is about 15″ off the ground. I bought $5 seat cushions from Walmart if the kiddos want to use them.

Here is another type of chalkboard sign I bought for the little IKEA tables (I am not putting supply bins at them). Recognize the address Harry Potter lived at in the first Harry Potter book?

Anyone recognize this address? It belongs to Encyclopedia Brown!

I also took an old scratched up coffee table from home and spray painted it black. I bought two of these beach chairs in July at Target for only $5 each (guess no one wanted orange) and coincidentally found the third one, appearing unused and clean, next to my dumpster. PS: the paper towels are just in case the bottom of the table legs were a little wet. I got rid of them since taking the picture.

My principal said he would get me a kidney shaped table – I have never had one – but as of three days before the first day of school it had not arrived. A kindergarten teacher was getting rid of hers so I snagged it. Too low, obviously. But Murphy’s law, Monday afternoon the new kidney shaped table arrived (still in the box) so I will be getting an upgrade soon! The stools are $5 each from IKEA and I used them last year too at the teacher table. They worked great but every few months one does break.

Last spring I sent an email to parents asking if they had any camp chairs, beach chairs or kid sized stability ball chairs they would be willing to lend me. Well a couple parents followed the link I had provided to Amazon as an example and purchased these stability ball chairs and donated them to my classroom! How sweet! They’re here with a very old crate from my college days, an IKEA side table, and a fake plant (which can be easily moved so kids can work there).

There are a couple things still in progress. For example, my admin ordered me some shelves and cubbies for the kids to store some personal belongings but they will not arrive until later in September. Bummer! For now my friend lent me those big green and blue bins and I had the ones in the middle so I lined them up on the floor under the whiteboard. Most kids will have to share one with a classmate but I hope it’s really temporary. Maybe just a couple weeks. and I just don’t have shelf or table space for 13 more bins. Oh well!

I will follow up with a separate post n classroom management with flexible seating. I wanted to give you a peek at what the physical space looks like with it first. However, I saw something cool on HeidiSongs’ Instagram account – this free Flexible Seating Rules poster. It’s perfect and sums everything up just right so I made two and posted them in different spots in the room! Click here to see it on Instagram and the link should (for now) be in her IG profile.

So stay tuned for follow up posts about flexible seating and information on classroom management with it! Feel free to comment and let me know your experience with Flexible Seating!