SitSpots® were created by Joyce, a kindergarten teacher in 2012!
In 2012 I decided to teach kindergarten knowing very little about this grade and having never taught students below the 5th grade level. Prior to this decision, I had been an elementary educator, teacher of middle school students, and principal, for 25 years. In the first hour of teaching my brand new kindergarten students, I quickly realized that spatial management was an enormous problem that I had never experienced in my years as an upper grade level teacher nor as a principal.
After weeks of research and reading lots and lots of great blogs, the big disappointment came when I realized that the only solutions to this spatial management problem were to use tape on the floor or to purchase an expensive area rug (out of my own pocket). I already knew that tape destroyed carpeting so that option was immediately eliminated, and unfortunately that left me with the $400-$500 carpet option.
Desperation quickly set in…hence I began to think outside of the “carpet” box.
SitSpots were created as a result of my struggles with classroom management and my refusal to buy an expensive area rug that would take up half the space in my classroom and cost an enormous amount of money. The very first image I had of a SitSpot was actually a little orange fish.
During the time I spent teaching my kindergarteners, I used the spots to help organize the classroom. We used them for directional cues for lining up and rotating to centers. Students had spots to sit on for carpet time, and we could make a circle in no time at all by standing on different shaped spots that were placed in a circle surrounding the carpet time spots. I placed puffy stars in a circle surrounding my paw prints that we used for our “carpet time” and when we wanted to do an activity requiring a circle I would tell them to stand on a star and guess what … instant circle!
I retired in 2014 to focus solely on SitSpots; however, my heart warms every time I remember the moments when the spots brought a sense of fun and whimsy back to my teaching. Every morning many of my students would be looking in the windows to see if the spots had “changed” instead of playing on the playground. One wintery morning they found red and green footprints in front of their Santa letters (that were posted on the publishing wall) and determined that the elves must have paid them a visit. Those that didn’t have their Santa letters completed quickly finished them, in their best printing of course, without a single reminder from me. During the dark month of January they found glitter on the carpet and their new happy face spots. As the weather warmed one of my boys proudly told me that he had signed up for T-Ball and the next morning he found that his spot had transformed into a baseball. I had taken a white circle spot and used a Sharpie Paint Marker to draw the stitches. Ladybugs became the rage for my girls and one by one many of them found that their spots had transformed into ladybugs. I also drew those ladybug spots using red circle spots and Black Sharpie Paint Markers.
These spots were used also for our Floor Games where students practiced their skills. I wrote sight words on some spots and we danced, hopped, tossed beanbags, marched to music, etc. on those words daily during center time. Once my lowest readers knew the sight words I would replace them with new words and then move the spots with the words that they knew to “new” locations throughout the room. Every time a student passed those spots they would read the word. My students loved coming to school and I believe that it was because of those spots and the fun that I had bringing the excitement back into the classroom.
SitSpots are currently based in the sleepy beach town of San Clemente, CA. We are a young company with places to grow. Helping teachers is what we’re all about and we’ve already helped thousands of teachers throughout the U.S. and internationally; and are continuing on our quest to help every teacher, including you.
Give SitSpots a try. I'm certain that you'll love the diversity of this amazing classroom management and teaching tool product as much as I did.
SitSpots...where good teaching begins!
Respectfully,
Joyce Buehler
Inventor of SitSpots