Calming Corners
What Is a Calming Corner Space?
- A Classroom Calming Corner is a quiet area of the room equipped with soft furnishings and soothing materials to help a student de-escalate when upset.
- We can also provide calming corner spaces for middle school and high school spaces.
- Each calming corner can be customized for the specific age or classroom grade.
- Calming corners can be equipped with many tools to help regulate emotions including but not limited to:
- Bean bag chair(s) or floor cushions/large pillows
- Soft rug
- Relaxation CD and player or headphones
- Books, magazines
- Low partitions/dividers for privacy
- Fidgets or Glitter Jars
- Visual calming strategies like yoga calm posters or breathing exercises
- Visual timer
Process
- Select an out-of-the way area in the classroom to create the Calming Corner.
- Furnish the space with a soft rug, bean bag chairs, floor cushions and/or large pillows, a relaxation CD and player, headphones, books and magazines, etc..
- If possible, set up wall partitions to provide enough privacy for the student while still allowing visibility by the teacher.
- Introduce the calming corner space to your classroom. Review different tools at your morning classroom meetings to reinforce the calming corner area and how it can be used.
- Post a set of visual calming strategies in the area to provide self-managing reminders for the student. These could be yoga, calm poses, breathing exercises or other quiet activities.
- Talk with the student privately and explain how and when to use the area. Let him know that he is allowed to go to this area at the first sign of becoming upset. Tell him that you’ll meet him back there and together, you’ll quietly agree on a time limit to use the area. Set the visual timer for the agreed upon amount of time.
- When the time is up, privately reinforce the student for returning to his work area. This reinforcement may help the student repeat this desired behavior in the future.
- Note – If you feel that the student is beginning to use this area frequently and suspect he’s possibly avoiding work, you may decide to start providing a limited number of break tickets he can specifically use in the morning and in the afternoon to curtail this behavior. Utilize the Calming Corner with all of the students in your classroom.
Would you like more information on Calming Corners?
Are you interested in bringing Calming Corners to your school or district?
Thumbs Up has partnered with several school districts to help bring calming corner spaces to elementary and middle schools. Click the learn more button below for more information on how to get started!