These stools I found for $5 dollars at Family Dollar. They are sturdy little metal stools that the kids love. They are very practical and come in all kinds of cute colors and for a price so cheap you really can't beat them! We currently have 7 of them and they get used all day every day.
These are my absolute favorite. These Gaiam yoga ball chairs are wonderful. I had 4 and then wrote a Donors Choose grant for 4 more because everyone loved them so much. They allow my students to bounce just enough that they are happy but they can still stay focused on our lesson. These are a little pricey but so worth it.
These are also made by Gaiam and I like them alright. They are cheaper than the yoga ball chairs and have a little more stability than typical yoga balls from the four legs on the bottom, so they aren't rolling all over the place. The kids aren't as crazy about these but they do still get used often.
I looked for these scoop seats for a year. I saw them on Pinterest and loved them. My son loved them so much he decided to keep two at home, one for him and one for my daughter. They kids use these when they want to move around the room and we have trays that we use to write on when they are working in the floor.
I made 3 crate seats to go at my computer table and the kids like them. I like that they also provide storage for our classroom stuff. You can see art supplies peeking out the wholes. These are pretty sturdy and have lasted me about 3 years now. The only down side is they go flat fairly easy so they aren't very comfortable. But They are easy and cheap to make and I can always add more stuffing and we are good to go.
These tables we supposed to be for standing but they were a little too short for my second graders (they are the perfect height for my son in kindergarten) so I got these taller wobble chairs (teen height) from Donors Choose. They were a little hard for my kids to figure out since they do wobble and are taller. We nada few spills off of them but they finally got the hang of them. I like that these provide my students with a little movement as well.
These wobble cushions are also for working around the room. My kids like to sit on them or lay their chest on them while they work on trays.
Finally I have two chairs at my teacher desk with these bouncy bands. I make sure to sit my most active kids at these seats so they can move during small group. They get used to all our other mobile seats and do not want to sit still for me, so this fixes that issue.
I had a wonderful technical plan for how we were going to figure out where everyone sat but as usual that didn't work out. The first week of school I would just ask my kids to sit in a different seat every time we reentered the room or changed subjects/activities. I stressed that they need to choose a seat where they could work their best and to make sure they only sat next to people that would encourage them to follow the rules. I didn't want anyone sitting in a seat or with someone that would be a distraction to them. I nada few issues in the beginning but once one student lost the privilege of seating on the wobble chairs they realized I meant business and they didn't want to chance losing their privilege. I still love looking around the room and seeing kids spread out everywhere but still working so hard! Makes a teachers heart happy!!
Thanks to some wonderful donors at donorschoose.com we have all the materials to hatch baby chicks in our classroom. We will get our eggs tomorrow from another fabulous donor and we are so excited for this adventure!
