Creating a welcoming, functional first grade classroom with functional seating is a game-changer for teachers and students alike! Flexible seating is a great way to make your classroom fit the needs of your students and you. Let’s walk through 5 easy steps to design a functional first grade classroom with flexible seating to ensure your space is ready for a great year before your students ever step foot inside!
Understanding Flexible Seating
Before you consider designing your functional first grade classroom, stop and consider what you know about flexible seating. It’s important to have a clear understanding about how this option will benefit your students and transform the way your classroom looks and feels!
Flexible seating options in a classroom replace the traditional desks and chairs with a variety of seating options. Students can choose where and how they sit in order to learn best!
This can include options like wobble stools, bean bags, floor cushions, standing desks, short tables, and more. These flexible seating options can be referred to as “Smart Spots” (more on that below!).
Flexible seating has been proven to benefit students by increasing:
- Focus
- Engagement
- Collaboration (aka a positive classroom community!)
- Student empowerment
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Transforming Your First Grade Classroom with Flexible Seating & Function
Returning to your classroom after a break is a great time for a fresh start! Consider these 5 steps to revamp your classroom with flexible seating while ensuring it remains functional and inviting to you and your students:
- Plan Your Vision
- Update Boards
- Consider Curriculum Needs
- Organize Supplies
- Add Flexible Seating
Transforming your entire classroom can feel like a big job, but with a great vision in mind plus a few action steps, you can achieve an amazing change just like this!
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1. Plan Your Vision
First, think about what your classroom should accomplish. In order to have a successful year ahead, you need it to be organized and functional! You want it to be welcoming to your students.
Other considerations might include:
Do I want bright colors or more soothing ones?
Do I already have a theme in mind or can that go with the flow?
What storage and seating options do I already have or are available to me?
2. Update Boards
Next, update your classroom boards! It may not seem like much, but it will make one of the most transformative impacts visually and functionally for your day-to-day teaching.
If you have black chalkboards, cover them with white contact paper. Plain contact paper is fine if you don’t plan to write on your boards. Dry erase contact paper is an awesome choice if you need that surface for writing!
If you’re wondering, the boards are still magnetic and don’t require any special magnets.
For functionality, use the black board for a magnetic word wall or sound wall. Add words as you go throughout the year! Use the additional board for a math and calendar wall.
3. Consider Curriculum Needs
It’s also important to consider your curriculum and how you will be teaching.
If you focus on active participation and student learning, you will need a lot of open space for anchor charts. Cover your bulletin boards with fabric, but intentionally leave them blank so you can fill them together with your students.
4. Organize Supplies
Keeping your classroom organized and functional is even more important when using flexible seating!
Classroom Library
Organize your classroom library into two:
- one organized by topic, character, genre, etc.
- Another organized by text difficulty
These large Sterilite bins (without the lids) are perfect to keep the library shelves organized. Smaller clear bins work great for more specific label sizes too! Consider what size bins will work best for your collection of books and labeling desires.
If a few bins don’t fit in your areas, it’s okay! Tuck them into other spots around the classroom. When books are clearly labeled with matching stickers, they can be easily borrowed and returned!
Community Supplies
Since your students don’t have traditional desks in a flexible seating classroom, you need to plan for extra storage for classroom supplies. Use a large table or shelf to store community supplies. Further organize the space using clearly labeled bins.
Your firsties can share all of the things in these areas!
Personal Supplies
Drawers are a great option for your first graders’ personal supplies (pencil boxes, folders, journals, and math workbooks). Use bins to store books for independent and partner reading.
Space the drawers and bins out around the room to keep the areas from getting too crowded.
Teacher Supplies
If you’re diving fully into the flexible seating model and ditching your own desk, you’ll still need a place to keep everything!
Keep your teacher supplies organized in Sterilite drawers and a teacher tool box. Use spraypaint to make your tool box match your classroom theme!
5. Add Flexible Seating
This is quite possibly going to be your favorite step in the process of designing your own functional first grade classroom— it’s time to add the flexible seating!
There are so many great options!
The low table is always a popular spot. It can be used with or without wobble cushions. To make this table, just remove the leg extensions from a standard classroom table.
You can also use these two little side tables and step stools! They make a great space for partner work. From personal experience, I’ve found that it’s best to have four of each seating choice available, so there’s another matching table and stool on the other side of the room.
Another more traditional-feeling option is desks with ball chairs or regular chairs with Fidgeteez chair bands.
This table doubles as a small group table. These stools are from ikea, you can find other bright cushioned stools Amazon too!
Use a futon to create the perfect space for reading and partner work. The stools from Otto Storage are the best! One is used to store cushions and one is used to store clipboards. They are both used a seats and tables too!
And finally, fill the rest of the nooks and cranies of your classroom with different seating options! Make sure you have at least enough seating options for all of the students on your class roster (plus a few extras for any new students you may get or for students who just might not want the last option).
Use cozy chairs to help make your classroom feel welcoming to your students and for reading and independent work.
Wobble stools, scoop rockers, and laundry baskets with pillows are all great options too!
More About Smart Spots
“Smart Spots” are a place for students to do their best work.
Check out this flexible seating book about Smart Spots to help your students understand your expectations for flexible seating. It’s perfect to read (& reread) during the first week of school and then again throughout the year as much as needed!
Smart Spot Examples
For focused, individual work, students may like to choose to work at the low table area. When working in pairs or small groups, partner work tables are a great opton!
Reading nooks are cozy, comfortable spaces for independent reading while open areas are great for larger group activities like projects or discussions.
The possibilities are endless in a well-designed functional first grade classroom with lots of flexible seating options!
Helpful Resources for Your First Grade Classroom with Flexible Seating
Visuals are key when working with little ones regardless of the topic, but they’re especially helpful when designing a functional first grade classroom with flexible seating!
This flexible seating resource bundle includes everything you need to have a successful year:
- Smart Spots book
- Pencil box name tags (in English & Spanish)
- Flexible seating rules
- Student contract
- Parent letter
- Worksheets
- & more!
Grab these FREE flexible seating posters to help your students learn how to sit on the rug too!
Designing a functional first grade classroom with flexible searing can truly transform your students’ learning experience! By updating your decor, organizing key parts of your classroom, and adding diverse seating options, you will create an environment where students thrive. Embrace this change and watch your classroom transform into a happy, dynamic, and productive space!
Congrats on making your own Happy Place— It’s going to be great.
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11 Responses
I LOVE your classroom, but I have to ask… how did you pay for the amazing seating and storage you have? So many amazing ideas! Thank you!
What a beautiful classroom! How did the storage drawers hold up? They look like the ikea Trofast bins? I teach kindergarten and was thinking about trying them but I wanted to make sure they were durable enough for the investment!
I noticed you don’t have a teacher desk. Where do you keep your desktop computer?
Hi Rose,
I don’t have any desktop computers in my classroom. I have a laptop that I keep on my front table so I can connect it to our smart board. Thanks!
How did you make the “learn hard play hard” signs? I also saw I (heart) kindergarten in another room.
Your ideas are great! I love everything about it!
The rugs are soooo cute; then again it all is:)
Hoping to take some of your wonderful ideas and put them in the K classroom next year…
I’m following you for new ideas as well:)
Happy Summer!
I see in a few pictures that you have a small number line on the board, under the Alphabet. Is this found in any set in your TPT store? I love hoe it seems to fit on the thin cork strip. Thanks!
Do you sell or make available your labels for your tool box storage container? I have the same one and like your labels the best out of all that I have seen. I would greatly appreciate it.
I would love to do this, but please tell me how you organize writing when not everyone has a desk?
I would love to know how you assign the flex seating so the kids aren’t arguing over it. Also, is the flex seating everyday seating since you took out all but a few desks?
Hi Lisa,
Thanks so much for reaching out! I used the book Smart Spots to introduce the concept of flexible seating to my students. We talked a lot about choosing the right type of seating for each type of learner. My students had one assigned spot in the classroom that was used when the art teacher came and they all needed a solid surface for working. Other than that, they got to self-select different spots throughout the day. I never had many issues with students arguing over the types of seating. They understood how and why to choose a Smart Spot so it wasn’t necessary for me to create any type of rotation system. I definitely recommend checking out the Smart Spots resources and using them with your students.
Happy Teaching!
Emily