Create Your Own Flexible Seating Book Stool

Flexible seating is all the rage in classrooms these days, and we love finding creative ways to offer it. We recently brought you the pool noodle sensory chair, and last year we created an inner tube reading chair. Now we’re bringing you this book stool, made from a gym scooter and old books. 

Yes, we assure you that no books were harmed during the making of this flexible seating stool. We actually used books that were headed to the recycling bin!

For this project, we found that it worked best to use books all about the same size because that allowed us to stack them perpendicularly and make a perfect square. Our books were sized roughly five inches by seven inches, but you can adjust and stack as you see fit. We’d love to see someone make a dictionary or encyclopedia stool! Here’s a video of how ours turned out.  

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvwR4EhhnRg[/embedyt]

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What You Need 

• Old books
• Gym scooter 
• Hot glue gun & Gorilla glue sticks
• Scissors 
• Staple gun 
• Plywood 
• Foam
• Fabric 

What to Do 

Find the right books and practice stacking. 

The trickiest thing about this project is finding a good pattern to make the books all fit together. If you use differently sized books, it’s a bit of a puzzle. We recommend collecting old books that are all similar in size. Then test it out on your scooter before you glue anything. 

Hot glue your base. 

It’s important to have a good base, so you might even give it a couple of layers to make sure it’s sturdy. 

Glue your other books, one layer at a time. 

We used Gorilla hot glue sticks because they have a stronger hold than many regular glue sticks. 

Measure and cut your foam top and plywood. 

You want your foam and plywood to be just a little bit larger than your scooter base. Our scooter was about a 12-inch square, so we added a couple of inches all around. 

Measure and cut your fabric top; then staple. 

Your fabric square should be even bigger than your plywood and foam. (We added about four inches to the square.) Then pull it tight around the foam piece and staple it to your plywood square. 

Secure the top into place. 

This is another area you’ll want to be secure. Be generous with your glue and then apply pressure (or sit on it) for several minutes. You could switch to the Gorilla liquid glue for this, but keep in mind that it will expand, so watch for drips. 

Test it out. 

This book stool would be perfect in any reading area. It would also make a good special person’s chair or a great place to sit when students get to share about themselves or get chosen for show and tell. 

Do you have flexible seating ideas? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE groupon Facebook. 

Plus, don’t forget the instructions for making our pool noodle chair.