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What is it?

One thing I had been interested in trying in my Year 2 classroom is a ‘Break Room’. It is a place where students can take a break if they need it. I think it is reasonable since even adults need a break from time to time.

My first attempt

At first, I didn’t scaffold it very well, breaks could be any amount of time and it just became confusing. I ended up basically never allowing them even though I had offered them, which is no way to build up trust… I needed a better strategy to make it work.

Current setup

During the holidays I thought it over and I made it work better. I got three-minute sand timers for the class. This is the amount of time students get on break. They can play with toys in a carpeted area. They must ask me first. They need to write down their name and why they need a break. This is for accountability.

How is it going?

So far it has been very positive. Students are happy with three minutes and I often find that students feel validated by it. Kind of like they may want a bandaid or an icepack for a physical problem (even if those remedies would do nothing). Students who were not working often came back ready to do more work.

Jake Heading

Creator of GoodTeach and Primary School Classroom Teacher.

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