Back to School Basics: Classroom Rug Seating Chart

After a full first day of teaching, I create a carpet seating chart. I base children's assigned spots on several factors but mostly on behavior. Then, comes the tricky part ... making sure the kids learn their spot! I drew, colored, and laminated a poster of the carpet and use post its to "write" kids's names in each spot. This way, I can easily reassign spots if children are not behaving like 5 Star Listeners where I originally placed them. If you're school uses Promethean Boards AND you have the same carpet I do this Flipchart will come in handy. Click this link and you're Good to Go! "Carpet Seating Chart Flipchart" "Seating Chart on Word Doc" (If you have the other Lakeshore rug, these bloggers have a great seating chart for free, too. Click Here or Here)

The hand drawn and laminated seating chart looks exactly like my classroom carpet. I purposefully did not assign any children to the center column and center rows for two reasons. 1 - The children need a way to walk up to the front of the room when I call on them and not have to worry about stepping on another child. 2- The carpet squares are too small for most kids! I purposely assign "taller & bigger" kids to squares bordering "empty" squares so they have space to spread out. Also, average size kindergarteners appreciate being able to scoot over a few inches away from a child that's too close to them as well.