Flexible Seating

This is a slightly newer concept... letting your students to pick where they will sit.  

To be honest, I'm not sure I could do it... I like my students being in the same spot every day (unless it's a time for a new seating plan) and sometimes it just makes sense because they have desks with supplies in it.  But here are some examples of classrooms with flexible seating options

In this classroom there were 2 students that sat on the ground on cushions at those little short tables in the front and 4 more went around the short circular table a little further back.  2 students could sit in those grey chairs and use the side table as their work space.  There's a table that's kind of hidden that has those wobble chairs at it (I think they are called hoki chairs?), and one of the tables at the back has one giant ball "chair" for a student.  At the very back of the room there is also some room for students to stand and do their work.  I think it worked in this classroom because there were SO many options.  You might not care for all of the spots but there are definitely a couple that you would be happy with.

A couple of years ago I was in a classroom where the teacher had set up different "rooms" in her classroom.  One area she called the kitchen (it's just to the left in the above picture) and she had a kitchen table with chairs around it.  There was a living room with a couch and a couple of side tables or a coffee table and then she just had a bunch of regular tables and desks for everyone else.  No one really fought over a spot (it was middle school and they were fairly well behaved though) but they did rush in to get the spot they wanted.

Here are some other options for flexible seating I've seen in various classrooms

Crates with a cushion on top are great options!

Not 100% on this one... but it looked like a standing desk option

In last weeks post I mentioned some things I would do in my ideal classroom for flexible seating.. things like a couch, a comfy chair or 2, and a taller counter space to use with stools would be ideal for me.

What kind of flexible seating do you use in your classroom?

Psst... last week I shared some pictures and wrote about what my ideal classroom would look like.