Adorable classroom crate seats

Hey all! Are you ready to follow me through my third year teaching antics? I thought I would start my blogging this summer and share some of my classroom finds! A sneak peak at some things I plan to share this year are my ideas for:
-Flexible Seating
-Classroom/School Wide Leadership
-STEM Activities
-Flexible Student Scheduling
-Technology in the classroom
And much much more....

Today was my first "work day" with some of my coworkers. Instead of spending the day planning lessons or writing first week plans we chose to spend it traveling the town in search for Flexible Seating for our classrooms.

I will share more of my flexible seating options when I get into my classroom but I thought I'd share how to create these adorable crate seats!



We started by heading to Walmart and grabbing their storage crates in the back to school section for less than $4 each!

Next stop was Home Depot. Me and 2 others grabbed a large sheet of 1/2 inch plywood and asked them to cut it to the dimensions of the basket, 17'' x 14''. This part was the easiest because Bruce let us browse the rest of the store while he cut our giant piece of plywood into over 15 squares.

Then we headed over to Hobby Lobby. Any fabric or craft store will have the supplies but we made sure to check all the sales and prices before purchasing anything and this lead us to Hobby Lobby.

We bought these Poly Foam Pads for each seat. Notice the dimensions are 14x14 rather than 14x17 but it still looked fine after upholstering. We spent the extra $2 for the 2'' instead of the 1'' but I am sure those would work as well for a bit cheaper. These foam pads were 30% off for a while and Hobby Lobby always offers 40% off a full priced item, so with the right timing you can get these for even less!

Then the toughest part came... what fabric will I cover them with!? So we headed over to the fabric section of Hobby Lobby. They often have sales on their fabric as well. I went for the duck cloth because it is much sturdier than cotton. I ended up getting 1 yard for 4 crate seats at $9.99 and used my 40% off coupon  and spent just $6.

After our shopping spree I had collected
-4 crates ($14)
-4 squares of 1/2 in plywood (>$5 with much extra)
-4 foam squares ($14)
-1 yard of duck cloth frabric ($6)
this tallies up to less than $10 per seat. Well worth it for how much my kiddos LOVE these seats. Plus they can easily be reupholstered each year or after wear and tear.

The last step is to use a staple gun to actually upholster the seats. It's so easy!

1) I cut my 1 yard of fabric into 4 equal squares.
2) Place one square of fabric face down on the floor.
3) Set the cushion in the center with the plywood on top.
4) Pull sides up tightly and staple!

It's as easy as that! And they're super cute and sturdy.

It only took about 20 minutes to make all four and even my kitty cat enjoys them! Super cute for a classroom, children's room, outdoor seating, and more! These seats will sit next to a large table that sits about 2 feet above the floor. My students love working at this low desk and sitting on this alternative seating. *More pictures to come



Hope all my teacher friends are enjoying their summer. Live it up while we can!