Sunday, September 16, 2012

Furniture!

We finally got all of the furniture for our space on the third day of school.  We spend two days with the students exploring each piece and coming up with rules of how to use it properly and take good care of it.
Most of the furniture is lightweight and is on wheels.  The idea here is for students and teachers to reconfigure the space and furniture throughout the day according to the particular needs at the time.
I prefer to have the furniture back in its "place" at the end of the day.  I think there should always be clear pathways to get from place to place.
The most popular pieces are the "rolling chairs" and the Hokki stools.  There's been a race to get these everyday!  We've decided to keep the rolling chairs at the desktop computers.  The desktops will get used most of the day and the counter there is a little high for the other chairs.  
The Hokki stools present an inherent challenge for kids to keep their feet planted on the floor; there's a need to pull both feet up onto the base.  But since the base is rounded, down the kids go!  A high probability of hurting oneself and others, so we've had to review that one a few times.
Also, we've noticed that during larger group instruction it's a challenge for students to maintain focus when they're preoccupied with finding a cool piece of furniture to sit on. We've gone to having kids on the floor for now until the newness of the furniture wears off.

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