Classroom Management: Seat Numbers Revisited

I've posted ALOT about seating in the last year but with good reason.  There is such high accountability as a teacher that I want to ensure that whether I'm leading a lesson, a colleague is covering my room or a sub is in for the day that students are organized and everyone is accounted for.  I also want to make sure that my room is arranged in a way that is best suited for student learning.

I've spent a bit of time thinking about how I want to tweak my seating arrangement for grades 1-5 and I think I've come up with a good solution.

Here are my seat numbers from last year.

All of my first thru fifth graders sit in an assigned seat on one of my flip form risers.  To make sure that everyone has a spot and isn't squished I added Seat Numbers.  It worked very well and was an easy way to quickly get everyone where they needed to be with the exception of one problem.

Last year I had section leaders on each riser that served as my helpers (you can read the post about it here).  I didn't have special seats for my section leaders, so what I noticed happening was section leaders crawling over classmates to get to the materials behind them.  It slowed down the process and caused arguments, so instead of having to stop and remind students about rules/procedures, I think I've created a simpler solution.

This year I'm remedying the problem by keeping seats 9 and 10 as section leader spots.  These two seats are where the two sections of riser meet.  So in the picture above, 9 and 10 are the two seats on top where the risers meet.  They will now have a star instead so that others can quickly see the difference.  When a student is a section leader, they will sit in this spot.  Each 9 weeks I will select a new leader for each team and they will then sit in these spots.  I will indicate this change on my seating charts so that any other adult can quickly find each child.  

One other slight change I'm going to make this year is how I attach my numbers to the risers.  Instead of using contact paper, I'm going to use velcro dots.  Thank you to Robin for suggesting it!  :)

Here are links to both the old and new seat numbers:

Old Green                New Green

Old Red                   New Red

Old Blue                  New Blue

Here are other posts on seating:

Kindergarten Seating

Kindergarten Visuals

Seat Numbers

Storing Seating Charts

Seat Numbers Part 3

I posted this beautiful picture of my risers with their seat numbers back in August.

They looked beautiful, all evenly placed but I don't know what I was thinking.  I cut these tiny, cute, little, petite squares of contact paper that just overlapped each seat number by a bit.  Ha!  They lasted like that for all of 3 days.  After they started falling off left and right, I cut bigger squares and I must say they lasted a long time but over the last two weeks they all started biting the dust.  

You can see there aren't many left!

I have them piled on my desk, new contact paper ready but they have been laying there unattended for the last few days because I can't figure out how I want to proceed.  Do I re-contact paper them to the risers or is there a better way?  Any suggestions out there?  I must admit the contact paper works well  but at this rate I would have to redo them at least once a quarter and I know there has to be something that is more practical than that.  While I know that I probably don't need them at this point, my kids know where their seats are, I want something permanent that I don't have to redesign next year.  So, until I come up with a solution, they will sit on my desk!  

Storing Seating Charts

I have posted information before on my seating charts (Seating Charts) but I thought I'd post some images of how I store them and use them on a daily basis.

  

Everyday I pull out the folders for the classes I will be seeing and put them on my clipboard.  It's a great way to make my folders mobile.  I can carry the clipboard around the room with me and quickly jot down assessments or store paperwork from students.

When I'm not using a classes folder, it is stored in a file sorter next to my doc cam at the front of the room (Classroom Tour).

Seat Numbers Part 2

Earlier in the summer I posted the images of the seat numbers I had created for my risers (see the post here:  Seat Numbers)  Here's how they turned out!

I printed them on white cardstock, then cut them apart and mounted them with contact paper.

Seat Numbers

I assign seats on the FlipForm risers for my 1st through 5th graders but I'm sick of hearing "She's in my space".  :)  This year I thought I would try adding seat numbers to my risers so that each child has a more defined space.  In the past I've tried using a sharpie to write the number on the riser but it fades very quickly.  So this year I'm going to try using contact paper to attach numbers to the front of each step.

I have made 3 sets to match the colors of my FlipForms. I made 12 numbers in each color because I have 2 of each FlipForm (2 blue, 2 red, 2 green) and I seat, max, 6 kids per riser (3 on top, 3 on bottom).

My rules for the risers:
1.  Sit in your spot.
2. Hands and Feet are still.
3.  Feet flat on the floor in front of you.

Seating Charts

I have written before about how I seat my kids but below are the actual seating charts I use in my classroom.  I love to keep my room organized and these seating charts really help me do that.

K Chart

1st - 5th Chart

Each class has it's own seating chart and each seating chart is stapled to the front of a color coded file folder.  EX:  All kindergarten charts are mounted on purple file folders.  (I'll take pictures of these during pre-planning.)  

Last year I made color copies of my seating charts on card stock and had them laminated at Office Max.  You could laminate them at school but I wanted the heavy lamination so that these would hold up for a few years.  I use vis-a-vis markers to write on the lamination so that I can easily change things as the year progresses.

Kindergarten Visuals

Earlier in June I posted a picture of visuals I use for Kindergarten seating in my classroom.  Here is the link to that post:  Kindergarten

I know they are simple visuals but why reinvent the wheel, right?  :)  Please feel free to use these in your own classroom.

Kindergarten

I finally found a solution for seating Kindergartners this year!  My classes 1-5 sit on FlipForm risers but these are too much of a distraction for Kindergarten.  So this year I posted some shapes under my white board.  Each shape is for a row of students.  At the beginning of the year I assign each child a row and a place in that row.  It takes two rotations before they've got it but it makes the rest of the year a breeze.  I can redirect students by recognizing a row that is making good choices, use this as a way to call students to line up and it is even great for taking turns at instruments.  Similar to what Artie Almeida does in Mallet Madness, I use my rows to take turns at instruments.  After they have taken their turn students go to the end of the row and we rotate until everyone has had a turn.