One Hundred Ways We Used Our Flex Area

(AKA – The Garden)

By Teachers: Katie J. – Room 318Michele P. – Room 316Burleson Elementary School, TX

• 1. Reading Buddy Area – when a parent volunteers, they use this area.

• 2. ARI Tutoring (Response Intervention) – Heather Culver uses this area for reading groups.

3. Small Reading Group

- when we have areading group thatneeds to read together, they go tothis area for a quietplace to read.

• 4. Unfinished Work – students who need more time to complete an assignment go in here to work.

• 5. Undistracted Work Area – students who need a less distracting place to complete their work.

• 6. Cool-Off / Recovery Area - students who need a break due to behavior.

• 7. Group Work – small group of students who need to work together on a project.

• 8. Station Time – stations are brought to this area to make the regular classroom quieter.

• 9. Discipline Center – when we need to talk to a student about their behavior, it provides a place away from other students to discuss.

• 10. Social Problems Worked Out – when students are having issues with others, this is the area they go to in order to resolve their issues.

• 11. Supply Housing Area – for those supplies we share, they are housed in this area for easy accessibility.

• 12. Sink Work – several science experiments have had to have water used.

• 13. Clean Desks – sink provides water to wash off our desks.

• 14. Pathway to Sanity – when Michele needs a quick dose of adult interaction, she can quickly get to Katie.

15. Pathway to Sanity

- when Katie needs a

quick dose of adult

interaction, she can

quickly get to Michele.

• 16. Substitute Spy – can easily hear if a substitute is having problems.

• 17. Teacher Spy – sometimes we just enjoy listening in on each other teach.

• 18. Restroom Break Spy – if a teacher needs to use the restroom, the other teacher can hear and see her class.

• 19. Message Corridor – when needing to send a message to each other (teachers).

• 20. Accessibility to Other Students – students who come to each other’s reading groups or classroom can come in quickly without disruption.

• 21. Drying Area – a place to safely let projects dry.

• 22. Set-up Area – an area to gather materials needed for a lesson.

• 23. Party Staging Area – room moms get all their things together before serving the students.

• 24. Protection Area – a student that would have violent actions would be contained in the garden, thus protecting our other students from the violent actions.

• 25. Emotional Break Down Area

– a student who is having a temper tantrum or melt-downcan go into this area, andwe can keep teaching otherstudents and allow the otherstudent privacy to experience the emotions they need toexpress while still keeping an eye on them.

• 26. Peer Tutoring Area – students work with other students either from our grade level or sometimes other grade levels.

• 27. Shared Science Area – (will be used with current BEST kit) both classes have ownership to experiment and capabilities to easily observe on going science experiments.

• 28. Easy Interaction With Students in Each Other’s Class

– this allows for eachteacher to know the other’s students on amore personal leveland the students alsoget to know an additional first grade teacher and develop another meaningful relationshipwithin the school.

• 29. Display Area – students admire activities the students from the other class does and this helps create motivation for my students.

• 30. High School Helper Work Area – the high school student is assigned to Michele, but because of this area, she can use it to work with groups from both classes.

• 31. Testing Area – TPRI and running records have been done in here – gives you a quite area while still observing the other students.

• 32. Babysitting Area – Parent night was a success because we were able to talk to parents alone while Lindsey babysat the students and their younger siblings in the flex area.

• 33. Breakfast Nook – a place for the kids that don’t eat breakfast to drink some water and eat a couple of crackers.

• “Okay, so maybe titling “One Hundred Ways…” was a little ambitious, but you can see from our list that the flex area is used for quite a mish-mash of items………… We weren’t sure if this little area (aka the Garden) was going to be beneficial or not, but now it is hard to image not having it.”

Katie J. – Room 318Michele P. – Room 316Burleson Elementary School, TX