Flexible Seating in Late Primary

This year I decided to go without assigned seating. No individual desks for each student.

For years I've made cute name tags, arranged my desks in groups and rotated the seating arrangement the first of each month. Throughout the day, students were free to work wherever they wanted on reading or writing or math or anything really. I had a "where can I sit?" rotation board with many flexible seating options, but they always had a home "base" of a desk to keep their materials and for lunch and art.

Why the change?
Too many papers. Moldy food. Extra toys and papers and forgotten work. Entire collections of Shopkins and mini pencils kept in the desks. I had had enough. The room always seemed really crowded.

I still couldn't wrap my mind around how the first day of school would go though. Or how lunch would happen or painting in art. I actually wasn't planning on going "deskless" until the week before school when I was physically setting up my room. There was just so much more space.

In my grade 2/3 class, we still have 20 desks, but we are using them as tables for other things. We have seating around one big group of desks (for maybe 10 kids?) if they want. We have 3 large carpet spaces, lots of pillows and stools, big stuffies, 2 rocking chairs, some mini carpets, crates and lower shelves. We have rolling chairs and regular classroom chairs. We have way more seating options than students.

So.... how does it work?
Anytime I have a mini-lesson to teach or a class meeting or activity, we sit together as a class on the carpet. No pillows or chairs or toys in our hands. Carpet time is strictly carpet time. Listening to instructions, or a mini lesson, or participating in our morning meeting or Meditating. If we are using the SMARTboard, students will pull up a desk chair for better viewing. Once students are free to "get working" in pairs or groups or independently, they can sit were they work best. If they aren't working smartly (or speaking too much English),  I have the right to move them to a place where they will work better.

Each student had a couple of hooks and a basket assigned in the hallway, a cubby space for their lunch in the classroom and a book bin to keep their pencil cases, independent reading books and writer's notebooks. I keep their math books and religion and science scrapbooks on another shelf. They also have mailboxes. Shared pencils, markers, rulers, glue sticks, scissors, white boards, paper, technology etc, are found in various locations around the classroom.

Any challenges?
- The rolling chairs. Ugh. Still a constant reminder not to use them as cars. (this isn't a new challenge. I've had rolling computer chairs forever.) Time will help.

- I would really love to have a space to leave kids notes of encouragement. I used to write notes directly on their desks with white board markers and they had reading/writing goals taped to surface. I still need to think of a creative way to continue to do both of these things.

- I would like to do a bit more research to see if writing on the floor is ideal for fine motor skills (some have pretty poor penmanship). Je ne sais pas.

- We've done painting in small groups (4-5 kids) along the side shelf. That seems to work, but I am still apprehensive of the space to do whole-class painting all at once.

- Eating lunch isn't really ideal without desks for everyone. I don't like the mess they leave all over the room (crumbs, wrappers etc) when I am not in the room during eating times - regardless of how much we practice. They also wander a lot more. I am thinking I might get them to sit in a circle on the carpet only. I haven't decided. I need to think of a better system.

**- Some kids are still asking "when do I get my own desk?". Some really miss and value their personal space. Some also just brought a whole bunch of unnecessary (and unasked for) binders and stationary and have no where to put it all. (Bring it home kiddies!). Regular desks + chairs are (interestingly) one of the more popular spots to sit.

Do you have a standard desk for each of your students? Are you deskless?
What are your biggest successes and biggest challenges?
Do you have any tips for lunch?