Kindergarten Kindergarten

What I’ve Learned about Flexible Seating

I made a little video about FLEXIBLE SEATING in my classroom! I actually filmed most of this two years ago, but did not edit it. Because I am a slacker. But better late than never, right?

I have been doing flexible seating for two years now. At first, it was terrifying. Especially the first few weeks. There were little bodies everywhere in my classroom, and it just seemed chaotic. But it really WASN’T. When I looked around, kids were actually engaged and happy and learning!  I was just used to them sitting up nice and straight in chairs at tables.  But that was good for ME—not necessarily for THEM. And guess what—Year 2 was a BREEZE! It was second nature to me, so I did not even realize the “chaos”.

Flexible seating is not about the furniture. You do not have to have expensive wobble stools or fancy exercise balls. It’s about letting kids choose where and how they work.  And that means having lots of choices for them. I think it is important to have at least some tables and chairs where they can sit if they want to. 

Unfortunately, I have found that many of the things I purchased or no longer available. But I did try to link up as many things as I could in the video description. If you have any questions leave a comment below, and I will do my best to answer them! 

 

Another Little Peek at my Classroom...

Today I thought I would show you my desk area. It will never be this clean and organized again...so enjoy!

I spend more time at work during the school year than I do at home, so I need my space to be comfy and cozy with a few personal touches. Things that make me smile...family photos, quotes from Pinterest, and more of that silly garland that I made.

Here's a close-up of my shelf with my favorite teacher books, office supplies, etc. Now imagine it with piles and piles of papers that I know I shouldn't throw away but don't really know what to do with either...that's reality!

 

Here's one thing I could never live with out-- my Raskog cart from Ikea. It's my portable teacher desk. I wheel it to my teacher table when I work with small groups; I wheel it to the kids' tables when I conference; I wheel it to my easel when I'm teaching whole group. It has everything I need, so I don't have to waste time running around the room trying to find things. 

The top shelf has pens, pencils, stapler, date stamp, scissors, etc.

The middle shelf has teaching and assessment aides--magnetic letters, pointers, flashcards, etc.

The bottom shelf has all of my monitoring notebooks and anecdotal notes.

I've had it for 2 years now and can honestly say that I'm in love. Even if the middle shelf is a little wonky because I cannot put Ikea stuff together without messing something up...Oh well...nobody's perfect.

School starts in exactly one week for me. That thought is absolutely terrifying. I think I'll go to bed and try not to think about it.

Sweet Dreams!

How Do You Organize Your Books?

Today, Growing Kinders asked:

How do you organize your books?

I love this question, because I struggled with it for years. For so long, I treated my books like they were priceless treasures. I read them to my class, but wouldn't put them out in my classroom library. I was afraid they would get ripped, or bent, or smudged with little fingerprints. I stocked my classroom library with rejects--hand-me-downs or books I picked up at garage sales. Hardly what I would call quality literature.

Then I started reading people like Debbie Miller. I fell in love with Reading Workshop, and all of the sudden, I wanted my kids to READ. Not just the crap books I put out, but rich, deep, engaging literature. I wanted the kids to love reading as much as I do, and I wanted them to fall in love with books. So away went the crappy books and out went my favorites.

Now I don't have to store a lot of books, because most of my books are out for the kids to read and put in their book boxes. I have books of every genre out--fiction, fairy tales, leveled readers, magazines, author collections...This year, I set up a whole non-fiction section in another part of my classroom. My classroom library keeps expanding and expanding, like a living, growing thing.

There are some books, mostly holiday books or seasonal books, that only come out for part of the year. They go on this book stand. This picture was taken at the beginning of the year, so all of the back-to-school books are out.

When they're not out, I store those books on my bookshelves, but as you can see, there are not that many.

By the way, even though I spend a lot of time establishing expectations for how to treat books (read here), they still get ripped and bent and smudged with little fingerprints. But they get READ!

They are well-loved.

Besides, there's nothing a little packing tape can't fix!

Next year, I'm moving to a new school and will have a new classroom. I can't wait to set up my classroom library and will post pictures as soon as I can. In the meantime--get those books off your teacher shelf and out where the kids can READ them!

Setting up my classroom...

I'm in my classroom today. I'm trying some new things--we'll see how it goes. I got some new Expedit shelves from Ikea--they make me happy. Here's my progress so far (pics from my iPhone...sorry). I'll post some good pictures when I'm all done.

 

 
Here's my big project. See that mess--those are my paper files. I'm going through them, purging most of it, and making electronic versions of what I can. My goal is to get down to a quarter or less of what you see.  So I'd better get busy. Have fun in your own classrooms!

Classroom Supply Labels

A lot of people have asked for my classroom supply labels seen here in my Art and Writing centers...

So here they are:

Download Supply labels2

I cut them out and put them on these cute little black and white polka-dot labels from Barker Creek. (I got mine for 50% off at Mardel. I bought all they had!). I use these labels for everything--I love them!

Hope they are helpful!