Welcome to My Room - Grab a Seat

One of the first things people often notice when they enter my room is that there are no nametags on tables. My students don't have assigned seats as is typically true.

I have three large tables, tables like you might see in any elementary classroom. However, they are at three different heights. One is almost as tall as some of my students. At that table they can stand to work. In the past I've often had students push their chair back from themselves and lean over the table to write or draw. Then the chair is in the way. This makes it more comfortable if they wish to stand and means I'm not tripping over chairs all around the room.

Another table is more traditional. It's at a height that makes it possible for the kids to sit at it in chairs. I keep it in my room partly as one place for a teacher to meet with a guided reading group. Otherwise I might have gotten rid of it by now.

The last large table has part of the legs removed and sits low to the ground on a carpet. Kids sit on the floor at this table. It has been astoundingly popular in past years.

Those three tables would not be enough space for all of my students so I have several little tables. One was given to me by our librarian a couple of years ago when she was getting rid of it. My students loved having a table just for one or two kids at a time. So I began gathering others. One came out of my daughters' playroom when we got a new one. One is from Ikea and one is from woot. One I got off of freecycle. Some have a chair or two at them, one has a couple of stools, and one has nothing. I've found that the kids will move chairs and stools around to fit their needs at any given time.

It'll be interesting to see which spots this year's kids prefer.