Sep. 16, 2019 -- It’s a fact of life that kids get the wiggles. Their little bodies need to move and their little brains have trouble focusing if they sit still for too long. Canterbury Elementary School has decided to embrace that fact instead of fighting against it by installing a Sensory Pathway in its main hall.
These floor and wall stickers guide children on independent
physical activities that they can do quietly, as needed. There are hand and
footprints for crab walking and wall push-ups, letters for marching along, and
logs for hopping over.
The project was the brainchild of former physical education teacher Rachel Gaines. Last year, Gaines gathered a committee of teachers, intervention specialists, and principal Erica Wigton to discuss how best to allow children to “get the wiggles out” in a non-disruptive way. The activity stickers were purchased thanks to an Ohio Department of Education Climate Grant. Lead Custodian Jason Franklin spent the waning days of summer vacation applying five coats of wax to protect them. The result is a colorful and very enticing hallway playground.
Students know not to play on the Pathway unless they truly
need it. Current PE teacher Jamie Dubsky, who has taken over leadership of the
Pathway, established a set of Pathway Agreements that he reviewed with each
class during the first week of school. Chief among those agreements is that
when classes are traveling through the halls, students are not to use the floor
activities.
Each classroom teacher has received two lanyards so they can designate students to use the hallway independently as needed. According to International Baccalaureate coordinator Melissa Garcar, it’s a great way to de-escalate when a teacher senses that a student is on the verge of becoming disruptive. Teachers can also opt to take their entire class to the space when they need a brain break.
Perhaps the most exciting development is that STEM coordinator Jackie Taylor is looking into whether she could create these stickers on her own, using the vinyl cutters in Gearity’s MakerSpace, thus making them available and affordable for other schools in the district.
