Ask any teacher how school is going during this COVID school year and you might only get a head shake. There is so much to say about this school year that it often leaves teacher speechless. This year has been so insane that I didn't realize I never posted my room! Without further day here it is. I will say that alternative seating paid off for me this year!
I was super lucky I have a very large room. The school is pretty old which lends itself to larger rooms in my experience. I have 3 separate reading areas on this side and I have 2 reading tents which create separate spaces with a bit more coziness! That gives me 5 sitting spaces in the current COVID era of social distancing.
I had limited wall space so I used the windows to hang monthly writing samples. I got this idea at my last school and is a great use of window space that still allows light to come in but distractions to be kept out! :)
Any teacher that teachers lower grades can tell you distancing for carpet activities is difficult but doable...just not six feet. I was able together 9 spaces on this large rug with about 3 feet distance between each one. That is why social distancing with a full class is not possible. My district is on an AB schedule so I have about 8 kids at a time. I am lucky, too many more it would be very difficult to space them. My current room set up gave me a total of 8 places for kids to sit and be distanced.
On the other side of the room I have one more reading area, the teacher table (not in photo) and then a circle table with balls to sit on.
In this middle of it all is this knee table that will seat 4 in a normal setting and 2 with a plastic divider in a COVID setting. If I had another plastic divider for the additional ball-circle table, it would then seat 2 as well, but I don't.
My room was a big win for this year! I was very pleased. I was teaching Kindergarten the previous 3 years and this year I am teaching 1st grade. I did make additional seating purchases this year and I was lucky that I do have some wobble stools and the balls that were here already. We may be bringing all the kiddos back full time soon, so procedures will be changing some. During the AB schedule each kiddo got their own cozy spot and could spread out and even have mask breaks since they were so far apart. I have had to relocated book boxes and supply baskets (which were being housed in the cubbies) but with all the kids coming back, cubbies will be needed for backpacks.
Working out storage and space was a bit tricky this year. I like many other teachers when moving into a different room inherit stuff I do not want but am required to store because it is often title one or curriculum extras. Most of that took up my cabinet space. Thats it for my room this year!!
