September 11 - Mrs. Vasquez's Third Grade

What comes first the chicken or the egg? That may also be asked when thinking about our classroom environment and developing a sense of being a team. This year I decided to explore my classroom environment by gathering ideas from fellow educators. Prior to setting up our classroom, I asked some friends where they purchased their carpets, balls, wiggly seats, and alternative seating.

The journey began by submitting my Donor’s Choose application two weeks prior to the first day of school. I sent texts to my family and friends asking to help fund this adventure. I couldn’t believe it when I received my email from Donor’s Choose that my project was funded in THREE days. I was beyond excited! Step two, bins and stability balls submitted to Donor’s Choose one week prior to August 24^th. Project was funded in FOUR days. The students were beyond ecstatic when our materials arrived. 

We received ten stability balls and the students quickly brainstormed that our “class number” system would work for alternative seating, too! Student number 10 has access to the ball on even calendar dates. Student number 11 has access to that same ball on odd calendar dates. This idea was born from a class discussion…even better!

The students quickly suggested that we needed to enhance our room by adding wiggle seats. I was familiar with this because of the classrooms I visited. I decided that I would order these myself.  What an investment! The wiggle seats are amazing. One final touch was recently added - tractor seat chairs. 

The classroom environment truly has become a team now. This is evident on a daily basis. The students have flexible seating daily.  Every day the students are sitting at a different table and collaborating with different students. Our team developed a way to allow everyone the opportunity for each student to sit on a stability ball, wiggly seat, and tractor chair on a weekly basis.

The icing on the cake was demonstrated on Friday. We had a runt (smaller) stability ball that was defective. Two students decided to use it to lean on while working on FASTT Math. Next, I witnessed a third student wanting to lean on it and then there was the fourth student who joined them.  No words were said, the students just moved to allow the other students to join. Finally, two other students gathered, looked at each other, and the students moved to let the final two students join. Words cannot express how proud I was of our team. Simply amazing. What started as an adventure to allow more seating options has quickly enabled our classroom to truly function as a collaborative team! 

Mrs. Linda Vasquez