The front of my classroom is one of the students’ favorite spaces. We gather on the carpet for whole group discussions, number talks, and other conversations. The carpet came from Amazon through a grant on Donors Choose! Check out the rug here! The students also love to go there when they were finished with classwork to play games or complete challenges for early finishers.
My crafty hubby built the low bookshelf underneath my ActivBoard and white board. He’s so talented! I had tried to get my hands on one for a couple of years from teachers who were retiring or transferring schools. You’d have thought those shelves were made of gold with the number of teachers who wanted them! He finally gave in and built one for me!
Over by the bulletin board, is our wobble station. These wobble stools also came from Amazon through a grant on Donors Choose. These amazing stools can be found here! If you’re a public school teacher and haven’t looked into this awesome program, you should really check it out! The wobble stools are placed on a foam square of exercise mat that I found online at Walmart. Here’s a link! I tried bathmats one year, and they just didn’t hold up to the constant scrubbing of the wobble stools. I should also mention that the barrier is most definitely needed between the wobble stool and the tile, otherwise the stool leaves a nasty looking spot on the tile finish because of the dirt that gets tracked into the room.
In the right foreground is our square coffee table I snagged at a storage unit auction for cheap! At this seating area, student sit on yoga balance cushions from Amazon. They’re supposed to help improve posture. Here’s a link!
This is a better view of the wobble cushion station. Also in this picture is my teacher table where we have small-group lessons during differentiated math rotations. Under the table are stools from… yep, you guessed it!… Amazon! It’s beginning to sound like I may have a little Amazon addiction! Some were through a grant and others I purchased because we love them so much! You can find them here!
In the very back of the classroom you’ll see a pair of stools given to be by a dear friend and now retired teacher. My kids LOVE sitting there, especially when they’re doing a Flipgrid video assignment. I don’t quite know why that is such a coveted spot for recording videos… LOL!
Here you get a glimpse of a kitchen table for student seating and another teacher table. For many years I have had ESOL teachers push in, or inclusion teachers, or even student teachers… all of whom needed their own work space. This works beautifully as we can both be teaching a small group of students. With the other teacher table completely across the room, our voices aren’t in competition. I have more of those same stools from Amazon at this table. They’re so light-weight and versatile. They’re all over my classroom!
I use the black pocket charts by Scholastic to hold my math and science vocabulary cards when the focus walls are built during our lessons. I find this to be so much more convenient than trying to staple or pin word cards up! Here’s a link to the pocket charts on Amazon.
Back to the front of the room for this last seating option! These are the most highly sought after seats during any point of the day. These “rubber band chairs” came from a yard sale I happened upon one bright and sunny Saturday morning. They were only $5 each! Can you believe it? They’re so cool!
All of these pictures are actually from the beginning of last school year. As the year went on, my class received more flex seating through another grant on Donors Choose. I’ll try to hunt up some pictures of the surf desks and bouncy balls and get them posted soon!
Aligned to Common Core & Georgia Standards
