How to Set Up a Classroom Calming Corner
One of my favorite things about my classroom is the calming corner and I think my students would agree! I love that the calming corner provides a safe place for students to take a break to self-regulate, reflect, and refocus. All classrooms at my school are required to have a calming corner as a school-wide behavior support. After having a calming corner for one year my students and I loved it so much that the next school year I set up a second calming corner in a different corner of the classroom. Now my students have two choices of calming corners and it allows me to have two students utilizing the calming corner at the same time if needed.
Before opening up the calming corner to students at the beginning of the school year I teach the expectations. Here are the expectations I pre-teach:
How to ask to use the calming corner (show the silent signal)
How to use the sand timer
How to use the different calming tools
How to clean up and return to the class activity
Some of the calming tools that I put in the calming corner for students to use are:
Noise cancelling headphones
Playdoh
Coloring books and crayons
Slinkys
Stress balls
Essential oils (a couple of drops on a cotton ball in a small container)
Small containers of building tools (legos, cubes, etc.)
Stuffed animals
Other fidgets
Click the image to the left to check out this product in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!
If you’re thinking about setting up a calming corner in your classroom you’ll find editable visuals for teaching your students the expectations in my Classroom Management Tips & Tricks Systems product as well as in my PBIS Behavior Supports for Green, Yellow, and Red Zones product.
-Ashley @ Little Learning Ladybugs
