My Room in the COVID year 2020-2021

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!!

It's a new school year and I haven't posted! My room this year was over the top! Alice in Wonderland!

Over the summer I was inspired. I am currently in college to earn my Master's Degree in Reading and I have fallen even more deeply in love with children's books! The new Alice in Wonderland movie came out over the summer and I found myself inspired by the entire Alice in Wonderland concept. I wanted to create a wonderland that my students would want to find a place where they could sit under a tree or sprawl out in the forest and get lost in reading. So after planning and planning and collecting all kinds of stuff, things started to come together. I enlisted the help of my mom too! I even decided to take on creating fake cakes and cupcakes for an intricate tea table scene to be the central point of the room. The BIG idea underneath it all....alternative seating! Yes, underneath all the ideas of reading was the birth of getting rid of traditional desks and finding a way to design a classroom that would be functional yet fun and engaging for the kids. This was a challenge I will be honest. Many people had doubt about how this was going to work. I felt really good about it and when the kids came....they were stunned, amazed and bedazzled! So without further delay, here is the room!  

 



                   



                      



                  
     

                      
  
                      


                       


  Since the beginning of the year there have been some changes made to the layout as needed for functionality. Two of the bookcases and carts were relocated to open up the space around the smart board. The area around the smart board and on the carpet is where we have whole group instruction meetings for math with clip boards. We use this area for read alouds and for technology instruction when I teach them new apps or computer skills on the chrome books.

The box seats were an excellent purchase! I had a friend give me about 8 and then I bought the rest on amazon! They were $14 each. The best part is they are sturdy and they have storage inside. The kids can sit on them or they can use them as desks. They move around easily.

The knee table with the pillows is very popular! Next year I might have two! The other biggest draw for the students has been the tea table. This is more of a novelty they say but they love sitting there (boys and girls!).

The third most popular spot, although easily this would be on the list for first if there was enough, is the bean bags. The green blow up seats the kids loved but a couple of rough boys popped them within the first week and at $20 each, I wasn't happy, and the kids were really unhappy with them because they loved the green blow up chairs. I replaced them with bean bag chairs, which are just as popular.

The box seats the kids love, love, love when we meet for whole group. The one thing I have found myself NOT saying this year as much.... sit down in your seat right! I never have to say that. The kids have free choice every day all day of where they get to sit. If anything I sometimes have to settle disputes over someone taking someone else's seat. I can tell you that I have several ADHD kids in my class and I have a lot of energetic boys. All my second graders will miss the alternative seating next year in third grade. I am really hoping to inspire many teachers this year in the hopes that more teachers at my school will go with alternative seating! I can tell you when I started this during the summer, I had several that decided to go ahead and try some seating and now are adding a little more. Alternative seating is a good thing. What I will say is that it takes structure like anything else. You must lay down some ground rules. I stress a lot everyday walking and taking turns in our room. The kids keep all their supplies in cubby boxes that I found on amazon that fit inside the cubbies. We use a hanging file folder on the wood cabinet doors for take home folders and a few other incidental folders. As for working around the room, we use clipboards.