Flexible Seating

I am so excited to tell you all about a new adventure in my classroom! After careful research and much contemplation, I decided to incorporate Flexible Seating into my first grade classroom. While I have always had a variety of seating options in my classroom (bean bag chairs, small rugs, and special children's chairs), this idea of flexible seating is very different from what I had implemented in my classroom before.

I follow Mrs. Delzer, an innovative teacher from North Dakota, on Instagram. She posted pictures of her classroom and she wrote a great article titled Why the 21st Century Classroom May Remind You of Starbucks. I was very inspired by this article and realized that many of the students in my classroom could benefit from this type of seating and classroom layout.

I then set out to find out what I needed to make flexible seating happen in my classroom. I searched the internet to find more teachers using this innovative set-up. I found great pictures of classrooms on Pinterest and found a wonderful blog post with flexible seating FAQ's by Angie from Lucky Little Learners. Her FAQ's helped me to gain the courage to try it out…

My principal was very encouraging and fully supported my plans. I wrote nice emails to the head custodian explaining that I needed some desks lowered and some raised. He kindly obliged and jokingly told me that this might not be the end of these kinds of requests, now that I had taken the plunge (and he was right!).

Next was the fun part... Shopping!! I found 6 exercise balls with legs for children found on Amazon, 10 stability disks, containers for shared supplies, and kneeling mats. I already had some fun chairs, bean bags, clip boards, and rugs.

I rolled the seating plan out little-by-little and the students, of course, were super excited for the change in our classroom. I started with low tables with the stability disks. We took turns working in this space and the students were loving it. We used the disks on the rug and I had students take turns working on the disks.

I then raised 4 desks to standing height and had the students experiment with working while standing. I added some fidget bands to the legs of the standing desks and some chairs to incorporate more opportunities for movement. I then slowly introduced the exercise balls. We talked about how to use the balls appropriately. We talked about small bounces and how to safely sit on the ball without rolling out of the door! They know that these items are tools, but when the tools become toys, they will be taken away. Surprisingly, I have had very few problems with our new set-up!

This chart was inspired by Angie's Chart from Lucky Little Learners

The next step was to have the students clean out their desks. Folders and journals were placed in bins, reading books were stacked in easily accessible crates, and the only personal supplies my students need were kept in their pencil boxes and placed in their classroom mailboxes. I removed their name tags, and students were then told that we were sharing all of the spaces in the classroom. Some of them were a little taken aback at first, since they had gotten used to their own space, but it didn't take long for them to take some chances and find workspaces that were better suited to their needs. Plus, it so nice to have  clean and organized work areas, not desks stuffed with papers and toys/items brought from home.

Most of my direct instruction is taught at the carpet, with some students seated on stability disks. When it is time for independent work or group work, the students are dismissed by rows to make their choices. Some of the areas to choose from include: standing desks with fidget bands, laying or sitting on the floor with clipboards, Sitting on exercise balls at desks, sitting in chairs with fidget bands, sitting or kneeling at low tables, sitting in bean bag chairs, or sitting at a traditional desk with a traditional chair.

A few weeks ago one of the district's occupational therapists came in to see the set-up. She was so excited to see what we were trying (she was the one who gave us the fidget bands to wrap around some of the chair legs). My students were immediately drawn to the seating where they could manipulate the band with their feet while they worked. I found additional fidget bands from Amazon. I eventually purchased some Kore wobble stools that my students LOVE! They came from Amazon and have been very popular choices for flexible seating.

I am truly amazed at how flexible seating has transformed my classroom. This group of energetic and enthusiastic six and seven year olds is more focused and their energy now can be channeled in a productive way. This movement is allowing them to truly focus on the content and tasks necessary in our classroom. I don't know many adults who would want to work at a desk for 6 hours each day, so why should our students have to learn in this rigid way?

After six weeks of implementation, I will confidently say that flexible seating has been a success for my class. I can't imagine ever going back to traditional seating. I even bought myself a yoga ball for small group instruction!  Do you have flexible seating in your classroom? How is it working for you?

Check out my Flexible Seating Freebie in my TpT store. In the pack you will find a poster of flexible seating expectations, a student contract, procedures information, stamina charts, and a flexible seating mini activity book to help your students understand the expectations.

Check out the follow-up post- Flexible Seating 5 Months Later.
Check out flexible seating in action by visiting my classroom website.

Happy teaching!

The 100th Day of School

Last Friday was the 100th Day of School! It was such a fun day and I think the students will remember it for quite some time. I had the students dress up as 100 year-olds and boy did they come up with some adorable outfits! I even had one student bring in a walker and wore a bushy gray mustache and eyebrows. The boys were so cute with their canes, glasses, mustaches, suspenders, and overcoats. The girls were adorable with their floral dresses, glasses, hats, pearls, and huge handbags. They were just the cutest! The parents really got creative and I posted some pictures of the kids in our class website for them to enjoy. I even dressed up also! I got many funny looks at first and some of my colleagues had to ask who I was!

After the costume excitement and arrival we got right to work with our 100th Day of School activities. We played bingo (because lots of 100 year-olds enjoy bingo of course). We also completed our 100th Day of School activity books. Check them out here!

My students loved the 100th Day of School celebration! I am so glad we have made these memories in our classroom together and I hope they remember this day for years to come.

Happy Teaching!

The Importance of Art in the Classroom!

Integrating art into the classroom is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. In fact, I spent over a year writing about the topic when I was completing my Master's thesis titled, The Integration of Visual Arts and Literacy in the Elementary School Classroom.

I love this PBS article shedding light on the benefits of art in child development. According to the article, art can benefit children's motor skills, language development, decision making, visual learning, inventiveness, cultural awareness, and improved academic performance. I couldn't agree with this article more!

In the era of the No Child Left Behind Act, art was in some many cases, eliminated from schools to make room for "drill and kill" teaching of the heavily tested subjects. Now that NCLB is behind us (whew!), there is a push for students to be creative problem solvers in this new era of Common Core and STEM/STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math).

My question is, how can students become engineers when they are not given the opportunity to practice fine motor skills and creativity? Art is such a great way to practice the early skills that can assist students with becoming inventors, engineers, and successful scientists and mathematicians. Don't forget to implement art in the classroom! Integrate art wherever and whenever you can, it has a place in every content area! From math drawings, to science diagrams, portraits of characters, and 3-demensional models, art fits all curricula. Not only will your students be more engaged in the content, they will be able to explain their thinking in multiple ways and build lifelong skills.

Art belongs in the elementary classroom and beyond…

Happy teaching!

Main Topic and Key Details

Main topic and key details of informational text can be difficult concepts for students to grasp. Based on what I was noticing when teaching this concept to my students, I decided to create a product to help my students with identifying the main topic and key details of text in an engaging way. 

I created a pack of informational passages where students read the passage, then cut and paste the main topic and key details. These passages are high interest and engaging. My students have loved these activities and it is a great way for me to check their understanding. Some of the main topics are stated in the passage and some are inferred by reading the passage. Such fun and engaging practice! Check out the pack here!

Grab the digital Google Drive version here!

Happy Teaching!

Missing Punctuation Mystery!

I am so proud of my students and the progress they have made. Their writing has really improved, they are using narrative structure, and I am noticing such an improvement with their use of details! I have noticed though, that they are forgetting some conventions now that they are writing more elaborate pieces. I created a fun resource to help them remember their punctuation when writing many sentences. It is called Missing Punctuation Mystery!

This resource contains both narrative and informational passages, and even friendly letters. The challenge for the students is that the punctuation is missing! The students act as the detectives reading the passages and discovering where the punctuation should be. They cut and paste the periods, commas, question marks, and exclamation points where they need to be. Then the students re-write the passage including the missing punctuation. This resource also allows students to practice fine motor skills, which are essential skills to learn in the primary grades.

This is a challenging and rigorous review of conventions, but it is so much fun as well! It is a perfect activity for literacy centers. I like to have parent helpers work with a group of students on this activity a few times until they get the hang of it… then they are off on their own practicing their punctuation detective skills!

If you are interested in this resource, get it here!

Happy Teaching!

Fall Pumpkins: Watercolor Art!

Every fall I like to do art projects with my students to celebrate the changing season. I normally create pastel scarecrows with my first graders, but this year I decided to try something new and exciting! We created watercolor pumpkins and the kids had so much fun!

First we read all about pumpkins and learned about the lifecycle of a pumpkin. Then it came time for the art portion of our pumpkin study. I taught my students how to draw a pumpkin on watercolor paper. I showed them a horizontal version and a vertical version. I explained how their pumpkin needed to fill the paper. Some of the students drew leaves and vines.

Then, I created black glue by mixing black tempera with glue. The easiest way I found to do this is to take bottles of glue that were half full and pour the tempera inside the bottle. I gave the bottles a little stir and they were good to go.

After the glue was prepared, I had parent helpers assist with going over the student's pencil lines with the glue. Older students could do this part on their own, but I found that the little ones needed a good deal of help squeezing the bottles and staying on their pencil lines. The glue dried overnight and we were ready to paint the next day.

I instructed the students how to use the watercolors and had them paint the pumpkin first using shades of yellow, orange, and red. When the pumpkins dried we went back to add the background, stem, and leaves.

My students love getting creative and art is a wonderful way to incorporate fine motor skills and knowledge of art basics such as color, line, and form.

I know my students will love to look at their pumpkin watercolor paintings hanging on our front bulletin board through the fall season. Check back soon for Thanksgiving projects and resources!

Happy Teaching!

For more fall activities check out The October Draw and Write Pack here!

Collaborative Conversations

With the implementation of the Common Core Standards, student discourse has become an essential part of everyday instruction. While I always created opportunities for my students to talk in the classroom, I have decided to really focus even more on effective collaborative conversations this year.

We have just completed our fifth week of school and my students have already shown growth with their listening and speaking skills. We started our collaborative conversations on day one and learned the routines we use for partner talk on the carpet.

I first taught the students how to turn to their partner. I explained they need to turn quickly, and quietly. They learned how to sit knee to knee and we talked about the importance of "Look, Lean, and Listen" when speaking with a partner.

I then introduced "Peanut Butter and Jelly" roles. I have a large peanut butter sign on one wall and a large jelly sign on the other wall. When the students turn to their partner, the poster reminds them if they are the peanut butter or jelly partner. I teach this by saying "If you see the jelly sign when you turn to your partner, then you are the jelly partner. If you see the peanut butter sign, then you are the peanut butter partner."

Once the students know what body language to use and their partner role, I talk about communicating with complete sentences. The kindergarten teachers did a fabulous job implementing this and it was evident that these students have practiced speaking in complete sentences.

I created posters for my classroom to help remind my students about the things they need to do while taking part in collaborative conversations. Check them out here!

I also use partnerships during guided reading and when students are seated at their desks. To help my students understand their partner role, I have created color coded peanut butter and jelly labels. These have been excellent not only for partner talk, but the colors allow for randomization when calling on students. Check them out here!

As our year progresses, I will continue to write about our collaborative conversation experiences!

Happy teaching!