Sensory Break Movement Choice Cards

About this resource

EVERYTHING INSIDE — 23 pages, 244 type-in fields

• 1 all-done reference card, 2 inches square, shown large on its own page with what it says and where it lives
• 12 movement choice cards, 2 inches square, sized for velcro dots, sorted under 4 categories: Calming (walk, ball, sit crisscross), Alerting (drum, clap, frog jump), Heavy Work (books, brick, backpack), Focus-Reset (ask for help, stand, timer)
• Every card twice: a full-color set for a laminated board and a black-and-white ink-saver set for the photocopier
• A Sensory Break Movement Choices Board with one MY MOVEMENT CHOICE slot and an ALL DONE pocket, plus two desk-size boards on one sheet for a folder or a second setting
• 12 blank movement choice cards with a type-in word line, for anything the printed set does not cover
• A how-to page: the four categories, before the first day, the moves every time, choosing a movement choice, if a bigger response is needed, writing down what changes, what to do when a choice is not enough on its own
• A Movement Choice Log (16 rows: date, time, adult noticed, choice used, duration in minutes, returned calm and ready Y/N, initials)
• A weekly roll-up (8 weeks) with a percent-returned-calm-and-ready graph
• A filled example — an invented student, one day on the log and three weeks on the roll-up, every percent re-counted from its own row
• A family page with a kitchen-size board and six home movement choices (one or two from every category) on one sheet
• A hand-off page so a paraprofessional or another classroom runs the same system the same way
• A phrase bank: 20 lines in 5 groups (spoken lines for the board, written starters for the log, the roll-up and the note home)
• A storage and binder label sheet: 12 labels (one per category plus 8 more) and a spine strip
• Start Here, a contents page with page thumbnails, and a "what's next" back page

A movement choice card set sorted the way an occupational therapist sorts a sensory-break menu — Calming, Alerting, Heavy Work, Focus-Reset — not one flat list of activities. Most sensory-break card sets stop at the picture; this one adds the log, the weekly roll-up and the phrase bank behind it, so a return to the class routine on their own each week turns into a line on a page a case manager can bring to a meeting.

The Cards

• All-done card (1) — the return to the class routine
• Movement choices (12), four categories, three cards each —

Calming: walk, ball, sit crisscross

Alerting: drum, clap, frog jump

Heavy Work: books, brick, backpack

Focus-Reset: ask for help, stand, timer

Every picture was chosen to be named in one word by a young child, in color AND in the black-and-white set; every card is something a student can do at a desk, in a classroom corner or in a hallway — no outdoor or organized-sport picture anywhere in the set. Cards are 2 inches square; the board slot is 2.25 inches so a card sits inside with room for a velcro dot.

The Board

• Sensory Break Movement Choices Board — one MY MOVEMENT CHOICE panel with a name line, and an ALL DONE pocket along the bottom for finished cards.
• Two desk-size movement choices boards — two boards on one sheet, cut apart, for a folder or a second student.

The boards carry no pictures, so they print the same in color or black and white.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF: type into the board's name line, the log, the roll-up, the family page, the hand-off page and the blank cards, or print and use a pen. The card pages print on cardstock or plain paper and cut along dashed lines. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT an editable online slideshow or word-processor document.

It is a way for a student to choose a concrete movement instead, in pictures, and have that moment end the same way every time. It is not a behavior plan, a point system with rules or a program of any kind, and it promises no outcome. It carries no prompt hierarchy, fading schedule or mastery rule; how the system is used with a student, and for how long, is what your team's plan says. The goal line and the criterion field are blanks for your district's own wording and your team's own number. The log counts one thing: whether the student returned calm and ready. No card, caption or data column describes an unsafe action anywhere in this file.

Who This Is For

Special education teachers, paraprofessionals and OTs who want a sensory-break choice menu organized the way a sensory diet is organized, case managers who need that use to show up as data, and the families who get the home page sent home.

More In The Collection

Part of the Visual Supports Collection, alongside Sensory Break Choice Board and Picture Cards (a different, simpler shape: four cards, no categories, no reference card), Calm-Down Choice Cards and Self-Regulation Board, and Break Cards and Choice Board; more picture-card sets are being added to the collection regularly, all on the same cards-plus-data shape.

Pictures (color pages): Noto Emoji by Google, Apache License 2.0. Pictures (ink-saver pages): Fluent Emoji, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, MIT License.