Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By JOYANNA LOVE/ Managing Editor

Students at the Verbena Annex will have a new resource when school starts after the installation of a sensory path.

The large floor decals map out different movements, including jumping and stretching, for students who are needing a “brain break” to be able to focus better in class.

Jodie Lawley, Verbena Annex assistant principal, said the path purchase was possible because the school received a grant from the Chilton Education Foundation.

The Annex serves students preschool to third grade.

“We have a lot of students who need those brain breaks from the classroom or they just may have a lot going on personally outside of the school setting, whatever it may be, we just wanted to provide them a resource where they could have a few minutes outside of the classroom to … regroup and get ready to go back in to the classroom for learning,” Lawley said.

Lawley said the path also incorporates some educational elements, such as counting and following directions.

Classroom teachers will be able to have an aide take any student needing a break to the sensory path.

The idea for getting a sensory path started when Verbena High School Principal Tammy Hand had shown Lawley a video of a school that had a sensory path, and they began working on how to get one for Verbena.