Flexible seating, or alternative seating, may be a good option for you and your class. Flexible seating is giving your students ways to control over parts of their education. The idea behind it is to use a variety of tools and seating options. It helps your students to focus better, which improves their grades and test scores.
Flexible Seating For Your Classroom
Posted by Jenn Eggert
Flexible Seating For Your Classroom
Are you a teacher struggling to get your class to focus? Do you find yourself constantly looking for ways to help your wiggly students?
There are many ways to implement flexible seating, but I suggest starting small and building your way up.
Start by using tools like fidget chair bands, wiggle seat, carpet squares, bean bag chairs or even a couch. You can use it in the reading areas or during small group work. The key to success is to have clear rules and expectations for flexible seating tools. If not, it can quickly become chaotic and disruptive.
Flexible seating can be used in any classroom, regardless of age, grade, ability or special needs. And the best part is that it is fully customizable. So if you have kids who struggle in traditional chair, you can offer them a balance ball chair to sit on. This allows their body to have micro-movement and freedom while still doing their work. It also gives them the feeling of self control which is very important to many kids with special needs or not.
Flexible seating provides your students a chance to get what they need to improve focus in the classroom.
In preschool and kindergarten, many teachers use carpet time for story time, calendar and so on. Flexible seating helps decrease distractions as students get the movement and sensory input their body seek. As a result, students tend to be less fidgety and improves their attention span.
I know our teachers put some time, energy and money into their classroom. I understand how hard it is to get administration to pay for classroom expenses. That is why Lakikid makes sensory tools that are of high quality yet affordable. Many of our products have multiple uses (which I will breakdown in an upcoming blog). We work hard to ensure our products are safe and highly durable. For example, did you know our fidget band can be used in at least four different ways? The more ways you can use it, the more value it holds and the more students it can help benefit.
I hope you continue to follow this blog series as I show you more about flexible seating, the value of it, the many ways to use our products, as well as how to implement it and setup rules to make it successful.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JENN EGGERT
is a 35-year-old mother of two. Jenn's daughter, Ryley was disagonsed with autism at the age of 4. Jenn is also the host of our weekly Facebook Live show, Ask an Autism Mom.