Alternative Seating Options in Kindergarten

I love this quote.  I have started living by it.  This year I started taking more risks and started to try things that I may not have tried before  

This year was the first year that I implemented several  different types of alternative seating.  I had been reading articles by Kayla Delzer and by The Kindergarten Smorgasboard  and agreed with everything that they were saying.  I somewhat started with this in 2014 when I started purchasing Isokinetic Discs for all my chairs.  Last year each kindergarten classroom was given some soft seating (couch, pillows and wobble stools).  This year, I added more options.

I love shopping at Ikea.  I knew that I had to have these desks.  The kids just flip out the legs and find a spot to sit.

These chairs are also from Ikea.  The kids loved sitting in them.

Some of my kids just used clipboards and found a spot to work.

I found cute chairs at different places.

I had a rocking chair that kids could sit in.

My awesome custodian made these storage racks for me.  I had asked him if he knew where I could find some shelves to store these oddly shaped seats.  He didn't know and instead whipped these up for me.  It helped so much with organization!

We loved our Scoop Rockers from Wal-Mart. I  had a class set.

Some kids sat at a table.

I had tv/couch trays for them to sit at.

Some kids chose to stand at a table.

Kids could sit on Isokinetic Discs if they wanted.




We had Wobble Stools.

We used tv dinner trays.

Each kindergarten classroom got a couch like this.  We separated it when we wanted to be sitting away from others.

We have big pillows in our classroom.

We used these desks from Hobby Lobby.

In January, we had an igloo set up in our room that we could write in.  It was a favorite spot.

I also had crate seats but can't find a pic of those right now.

I did try to avoid things that could spread lice.  We didn't have comfy pillows, stuffed animals or bath mats in our rooms like other classrooms do.  I think those are all great ideas, I was just a huge freak when it came to lice.  I have it in my room every year....and I try to prevent spreading it.

I had tri-display stands that kids could bring to their spots to work.  It had our writing process, our sight words, letters of the alphabet, numbers, color words, etc.  Each kid also had a plastic pouch that had their writing materials in it.  Kids had no excuses to get up because they had everything they needed with them.

I can honestly say that alternative seating options helped my class so much. They were more productive.  Not only were they more on task, but the kids were better behaved.  They had their own personal space and they liked choosing where they could sit.  The whole atmosphere seemed so much calmer.  I would definitely try this if you are considering it.

Sara