School sensory spaces are amazing ways to help students to self-regulate. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of school sensory spaces require a substantial budget. If you are fortunate to have a decent size grant, you can make an amazing sensory space, just like in my previous post.
Sometimes you have a budget of a couple hundred dollars. If so, you can make a classroom sensory space, just like in my other previous post. Most of the time, our budget consists of less than one hundred dollars, which can be a bit defeating when trying to create your amazing school sensory space. This year, I made the best one yet!
The Amazing School Sensory Space Started With A Square Bulletin Board Battle
Each year, we are tasked with the task of creating engaging bulletin boards for our students. Whether you are a teacher or a school counselor, we want students to directly benefit from the content of the bulletin board. Maybe they showcase what they have learned, or you share important information. Either way, creating an amazing bulletin board takes a lot of work. The bulletin board I claimed real estate over at our school was part of my role as a school counselor. Each year I struggled figuring out what to put on it: student work, amazing quotes my pre k and kindergarten students would no likely be able to read, amazing quotes older students had no desire to read… creating each year was exhausting!
Eureka! I Have Figured Out How Tor Create An Amazing School Sensory Space For A Small Budget!
took a step back and thought about what the goal of my bulletin board should be. I came to the conclusion that I wanted to provide an amazing sensory space. A space at our school that ALL students could have access to it. Student experiences had to be fun, but brief…. no lingering in the halls for hours. The board should ignite imagination, provide a calm experience, and connect to our school. I wanted it to be fun! Here is how it turned out!!!!!
Surprising Outcome
I knew that the sensory bulletin board would be a fun and interactive experience for all students engage with. I was surprised about the number of students that came to engage with its. Each day, I see multiple students walk by, ever changing the aquatic sensory fabric.
The respect the space so much. I put it up in October, and as I write this four months later, it is still in amazing condition. In addition of worrying about it being ruined, I also thought it might cause distractions through the hall, undoubtedly causing students to get distracted and not continue to their intended destination in a reasonable amount of time. I was wrong! Students engaged in the space appropriately and then went to their intended destination.
After creating sensory spaces at so many budgets throughout the years, this is by far my favorite for supporting students at Tier 1. It is easy to build, financially reasonable, and easy to modify. Next year, I am thinking about changing it out every 3 months, to keep it fun and interactive. Plus, creating new boards lets me have my own mini sensory moment :-).