Flexible Seating in K

My kindergarten students have a lot of energy and love to have the option of where they sit throughout the day! At any point, if you walk into my room you can find my class dispersed throughout the classroom on yoga mats, bungee chairs, scoop rockers, wiggle seats, on stools, in a tent or even in an empty pool! Flexible seating allows my students to succeed throughout the day, in a place that they choose for themselves! My students love to take ownership of their learning and love the fact that they get to move to a special spot in the classroom during reading and writing workshop, literacy and math centers, etc. We never sit still and are always looking for a fun way to complete our activities! All of this was made possible through my fully funded Donors Choose project! If you haven’t heard of or looked into Donors Choose, it is a great way to get things for your classroom without feeling like you need to spend more of your own money. If you are like me, you have probably spent hundreds of dollars of your own money to set up your classroom. Because of Donors Choose, I received $350 worth of items (for free) that I chose for flexible seating in my classroom! I have a couple tips for you if you are looking to start your own project. One tip is to not over shop. If your project does not get fully funded in a specific amount of time, you will not get any of your materials. In the summer I created a Donors Choose project that did not get fully funded because I had a lofty goal of $900. So, I did not receive any of the materials I chose. However, I did receive gift cards at the end of this project from family members and close friends that I then applied to my new project, Flexible Seating for the Active Kindergarten worth $350, and in no time my project was fully funded! Another tip is to advertise for your project! I felt really funny asking relatives and friends to help support my classroom so I just posted to Facebook and Twitter and donations were made without any begging from me. I also received 3 donations from donors whom I had never met who just stumbled across my page and liked my idea. When our first box arrived to the classroom, the kids were gathered around and so excited to see what was inside. A few kids jumped up and down when they saw the contents! They even said "we have the best classroom ever!" Since receiving the materials, my students have enjoyed yoga on indoor recess days, been more attentive and are more excited about reading, writing and math because they can pick their "just right" comfortable seating.

Flexible seating is great for any active classroom!

Guest Blogger,

Nicole O'Keefe

Kindergarten Teacher, Fairview Elementary

Cross-Curricular Bottle Flipping

Since the craze of water bottle flipping has taken over during lunch and transition periods I thought about giving students time to actually understand why it happens. They were beyond thrilled just to know we were going to flip bottles. While essentially that was what we were doing, I let them know that there was more to it than just flipping any old water bottle. We started our study by asking questions and writing them down so we could refer to them. They wanted to know how much water to use, is there a specific bottle size/brand, what angle is best, does the surface affect the landing, whether or not a dent in the water bottle will make a difference, etc. After this we continued on to discuss experiments and using constants vs. variables. Part 1 had each student selecting 4 different water bottles and deciding on how much water to be in each one (1/2 or 1/3 full). They also needed to figure out the techniques they would use for each flip (which hand to use, body position, bottle location, and hand movement. Once this was completed, students selected the number of times to flip each of the four bottles. While flipping, they recorded whether or not they were successful. After all four bottles were flipped the selected number of tosses, students then had to take their data and figure out the success rate and percentage.

It was then that we were able to move to Part 2. Part 2 had students using the one bottle with the highest success rate from Part 1. This became the new constant. The students were then to measure and fill the bottle with four different amounts of water (1 inch, 1 1/2 inches, etc.) and flip the bottle the same number of tosses as in Part 1. They again recorded the results and used the data to figure out success rate and percentage in Part 2. Once students had completed this, they were recorded using a Slow Motion Camera App on the i-Pads. These video clips were then watched by all three classes.

As we closed out this unit of study, students discussed the science behind how and why a water bottle is able land in an upright position after being tossed. The use of words gravity, mass, and momentum were used to help explain the process. I loved that I was able to take a mindless game and make it into something more for the students. It made them enjoy coming into Science class as well as participate. They were excited to see each others results and progress while at the same time compete with themselves in order to successfully land a water bottle. I have incorporated a game (Toss & Task) found that allows students to toss a water bottle 5 times after answering a question correct. I've tied this into our Social Studies unit on the American Revolution. Students were asked questions relating to the Revolutionary War and if they were correct, they could toss their bottle and collect points if it landed straight up and on top of the points sheet. All in all, it was a great way to get students motivated and engaged in their learning.

Guest Blogger,

Maria Woods

4th Grade Teacher, Village Elementary

STEAM + Math

My first-graders LOVE our STEAM and Osmo centers during our Math center block! At the end of each Math lesson I divide the children up into groups to work on different Math based activities throughout the room. Some groups consist of Math board or file folder games, Dreambox individual playtime, white board or magnet board practice using manipulatives, etc. The student favorites among our centers, however, are the STEAM and Osmo centers!

For STEAM centers I have placed different items into bins along with creation cards to give them some jumping off points/ideas. Most of the bins are filled with things that I already had in my classroom such as pattern blocks, dominoes, pipe cleaners, Legos, play-doh, and dixie cups. The student groups work at tables to create an idea on their own, or to create one of the idea cards that are inside the bin. They can work together or with members of their group, it's up to them. Once they begin the creative juices start to flow and it's not long before they want to post their work for their parents on Seesaw!

For Osmo centers students are working in small groups of no more than three. They work on Osmo numbers, tangrams, and Osmo coding!! The students are so engaged and they run the Osmo centers with little or no assistance from me. I love seeing their minds work and I love to listen to them as they work together to figure out problems or work collaboratively to create something truly magical!

First-graders really do ROCK!!

Guest Blogger,

Michelle Miles

First Grade Teacher, Nutswamp Elementary