Your web browser might not work well with our site. We recommend you upgrade your browser.
/classroom/5611625 Customize URL
Picture this: the snow is falling, there's pumpkin spice in the air, you're sipping hot chocolate, apple cider, or tea with honey and curling up with your favorite book. I believe that loving to read is synonymous with comfort. In my classroom I reward outside reading with a quarterly event "Read a Latte." During Read a Latte my classroom turns into a coffee shop, where students sip hot chocolate and tea, eat cookies and fruit, and, well, read! While we read, they lounge on chairs, couches, or on pillows. There's a term for this kind of atmosphere in the classroom and it is "flexible seating." Not only do they get to learn in this way during Read a Latte, but all year. What is flexible seating? A flexible seating classroom is one in which traditional seating chairs are replaced with seating arrangements that allow the students to sit where they choose. One of its principal objectives is to reduce the number/duration of sedentary periods of time, which research has identified as a hindrance to learning. Before the term "flexible seating" was invented, I have experienced that hard plastic chairs for 80 minutes is never how I like to learn, so how could a student? In order to achieve an atmosphere where learning and reading is comfortable, I have used my own money (and have been frugal) while shopping in second-hand stores to furnish my classroom. My furniture is tired, and this year, I need your help adding seating options like a beanbag chair and ottoman and the floor cushions.
Read more