Flexible Seating

One of my goals for my classroom this year was not to have assigned spots/seating for my Kindergarten students. I believe the power to choose where you sit and who you sit with helps build my students' ability to socialize, problem solve and self regulate. It is now the half-way point of the year and I could not be happier with how flexible seating and spot choice has worked in my room. This works in my classroom due to the amble space and the fact that our division provides supplies for the classroom so in our room all supplies are shared among all my students. The students know that they choose their spot and I have trust that they will choose the right spot for them or change places if it isn't working the way they thought it might. They also know I have the right to ask them to choose a new spot if they are not following classroom rules.
I am so fortunate to have two adjoining classrooms which gives us tons of working space. In the front room, there are desks clustered to act like tables and they all sit at full height with enough chairs for each table. These clusters are used for eating lunch at and doing whole group art projects and are always a seating choice. We also have a red, kidney-shaped table used for student collaboration and teacher-student small group work. In the front room, we have a reading area to listen to read-alouds or to look at books on their own. This space has a large comfy reading chair, a little bench/couch and a number of cushions and bean bag chairs. The back room has a "button carpet" from Ikea, a picnic table, two tables with their legs taken off so they can be sat on like a bench or sat around to be utilized as a table, two full height tables, a cardboard house with cushions on the bottom,a foam tile floored construction zone, a dramatic play area and a stage. These spaces are all open during playing/learning time, journaling time, time using the ipads and in the morning during center time.
Throughout the year, more spaces were made available as my students better knew how to self-regulate and which spaces worked best for them as learners. During journal time today, I was amazed by the variety of choices my class made - some chose to sit at a high table, some chose to sit in a pair in a cozy area and write on clipboards, some chose to stretch out on the floor, one chose to write at the kitchen hutch, others chose to cluster in a group of three on the stage and one chose to sit inside the cardboard house with a clipboard to write on and a desk lamp to brighten the area. Each one of them had pencils and drawing supplies nearby and took what they needed to their chosen spot. By this point in the year, there was no arguing over spaces or frustration that the space they chose hadn't been the best place for them to work.
Today I reveled in teacher pride as I looked around the room at my five and six year old students doing their best work in a way that worked for their learning style and social preference - yay K's!

M stretched out with the
pencil crayons she needed

J at the kitchen hutch 
with T and L on the floor of 
the dramatic play center 

P, A and D sharing supplies 
and writing
together on the stage 

M working independently 
at the kidney
table on a stool

L and O sharing supplies 
in the cozy reading area
with clipboards to write on

V writing on a clipboard 
in the cardboard house with
the desk lamp on for light

L using his forearms to support while
stretching out to journal