What is flexible seating?
Why use flexible seating?
What I'm using
I made these crate seats using this tutorial:
I have six of them in my room. The awesome part about these seats is the opportunity to also use them for storage! The table in the picture is from IKEA.Wobble seats
The wobble seats (also called Hokki stools) are the purple chairs above. I have one of these for my daughter and she loves it! The idea of these is that kids can sit on them and wobble to and fro as they sit. It helps those kids who need the sensory input to move as they learn. I bought the wobble seats for my classroom from Amazon. The purple seats in my room are being borrowed from a Kindergarten teacher who is not using them in her room this year. She suggested gluing shelf liner to the bottom so they don't slide around on the floor.Bouncy bands
The bands you see on the blue chairs above are called bouncy bands. The idea of these is that students can put their feet on the bands and bounce their feet. I am constantly shaking my leg when I sit still, so I think this is a good option for students like me! Just be careful when buying these from Amazon that you purchase the ones for chairs, not desks (as I made that mistake!) Also, the bands only work on small chairs, not on the standard size chairs I have in my room.Stability balls
The green balls you see in the picture above are called stability balls or balance balls. Students sit on top, and can bounce up and down as they sit. The kids LOVE these…but you have to lay the ground rules that they can't bounce so much that it's distracting for other students!Disc seats
One of my favorite purchases are the black disc seats you see in the picture above. One side is slightly bumpy, and the other side is bumpier. Students decide which side to sit on, and when they sit on them, it's a bit like the wobble seats, because they can move to and fro on them as they sit. They can be placed on the ground or on a chair.Locker mats
I bought these at Five Below (read more about my finds in this blog post.) They are super soft, and students can sit on them or lay on them.Memory foam bath mats
These mats are super soft, and meld to to the shape of your body as you sit or lay on them! I bought them from Amazon.
Also note that I had to purchase clipboards, since with many of these seats, students wouldn't be able to use the floor when writing. Here is a picture of my student center, where I keep my clipboards. I found a great deal on Amazon!
Here is a picture of the corner of my room where I keep a lot of the seats. I bought the flexible seating posters here.
I considered putting in an application for Donors Choose to buy all of these seats, but many of the projects on there were for schools in need, and my school is not. I decided to go ahead and purchase these myself, knowing I'd have them for the rest of my career! There are options, though, for asking for funding. Donors Choose is probably the most popular option for asking for funding for your classroom. Check out these flexible seating projects on Donors Choose for ideas on how to word your project. Have you used flexible seating in your music classroom, or your grade-level classroom? Feel free to comment below!
