Marked Boundaries Can Be Sticky Situation
It was the fall musical this week for my home town. My daughter came back from college to see her boyfriend sing, act, and dance his way into the hearts of the audience. It was a pretty good show. A little depressing, but none-the-less a good show. It reminded me of a time in which I too sang, acted, and danced my way into the hearts of the audience. No. It was not this week at school. I was a footloose and fancy free young lad. The music man had nothing on me. I was also a kick’n mime but that is a story for a different time. As I watched the show progress, the lights would dim and the stage hands would hustle and bustle about placing each prop precisely on the designated area. Of course, I knew why many of the marks were on stage because I have some back ground in the performing arts. They don’t call me Mr. Thespian for nothing. Actually, no one calls me Mr. Thespian. Anyway back to my point. Some of our students don’t have an awareness of boundaries and may need similar markings around the classroom. There are many ways to indicate borders. In the following pictures you will notice that they used some type of floor tape. Be it masking, electrical, or duct tape it all works with the sticky part down. Ha!
Here are some examples of borders: “Taped off” areas to work in. “Taped off” areas to calm down in or rest in. “Taped off” areas to sit and listen in. Heck, you can have “taped off” areas to walk in/on. Here are some images, courtesy of the internet, of differing “taped off” boundaries. The websites below are where you can find the image plus a bit of a description. I have included the websites with the pictures if you would like to see where they came from. Also, “check out” the information located on each site.
Pretty good stuff here.
Actually, setting visual boundaries have positive impact for students that don’t have an awareness of boundaries. Visual boundaries are not an “elementary thing” but could apply to students of all ages. Visual boundaries are just that…visual boundaries. They don’t necessarily fit one age or another. If a strategy works, keep’a use’n it.