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Are you looking for ideas for how you can help your students self-regulate? Do you want to set up a classroom calm down area that your students will love? If so, this blog post is going to help you set up the best calm down area that will provide your students with an area they can go to calm down and self-regulate.
What’s a Calm Down Area?
Before we start, I guess I should give a quick explanation about what a calm down area is. And really, it’s just an area that you dedicate to be a calming area. This area will be set up in a way that will help your students to self-regulate and calm themselves down. There can be tools here to help them do this. And my biggest tip – just make sure it’s accessible. You want your students to be able to head to this area when they need it.
Does It Need To Be in a Corner?
A lot of you often reach out and say you’ve reached of calm down corners – do you need a corner dedicated to it? No.. not really. The good thing about a corner is that it’s tucked away. It’s usually away from noise and distraction – and a corner is just a great space for you to work with.
Can It Only Be Used in the Classroom?
No! You can have one of these at home too.
How Do I Set One Up?
A calm down corner/area is probably going to differ slightly for all of us. And the main reason for this is that we are going to have students of different;
- Ages,
- Ability levels,
- Interests,
- Needs,
- and so on..
But don’t worry. Because today I’m going to share with you the classroom calm down area set up kit that I use – and LOVE! And you can use this too.
Classroom Calm Down Area Set Up Kit
The calm down area set up kit that I’m talking about today is available over on Teachers Pay Teachers for you.
What’s Included?
First, let me tell you about all the different things that I include in this set up kit;
- Calming Strategies Adapted Book
- Counting Breaths Visual Activity – Boy & Girl Options
- Visual Counting to 10 Activity
- Positive and Encouraging Quote Posters
- How Do You Feel? Visuals
- Calm Down Corner / Calm Down Area Display Posters
- Pushing the Wall Visual
- Can I Have a Break? / I Need a Break Cards
- Ready to Work Cards
- Calming Down Social Narrative
- Visual Feelings Poster
- Visual Calming Strategies Poster
As you can see – there’s a lot included. And this means that you can really make this area suitable for your students individual needs and abilities.
Calming Strategies Adapted Book
This resource is great to help your students calm themselves down. The pages contain different strategies for your students to try – helping them to become more independent. We like to use this with students for them to look through the different strategies that they can try – and to ‘tick’ them off when they’ve completed them.
Counting Breaths Visual Activity – Boy & Girl Options
This activity is a great way to help your students work on their breathing in and out. Students can tick off the breaths as they complete them. I don’t know about you, but when my students are worked up, sometimes it’s too much for them to listen to me talk about breathing.
This visual resource is something that they can access independently and use to help themselves calm down.
Visual Counting to 10 Activity
Counting is a great calming strategy. This activity comes with numbers for your students to place over the same numbers to count to 10.
Positive and Encouraging Quote Posters
These posters are motivating and encouraging for your students. They’re a great way to help your students reflect and move forward.
How Do You Feel? Visuals
These visuals are great to have up on display in your calm down area. Your students will be able to look at the different feelings/emotions and show how they feel. This is a great communication tool for you to use with your students.
Calm Down Corner / Calm Down Area Display Posters
These posters can be put up on display in the area so that everyone knows what this area is for.
Pushing the Wall Visual
We love putting this up in our calm down area. It comes with a label and two hands. Place the hands on the wall and encourage your students to push against these when they’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed.
Can I Have a Break? / I Need a Break Cards
These cards are the perfect way for your students to communicate with you that they’re starting to feel anxious and overwhelmed and that they need a break.
Ready to Work Cards
These cards are for your students to communicate with you when they are calm and ready to return to work or the classroom.
Calming Down Social Narrative
This social narrative is a great, visual resource for your students to use to help themselves understand the process of calming down and strategies for them to try.
Visual Feelings Poster
This poster shows a range of different feelings.
Calming Strategies Poster
This poster shows a range of different strategies your students can use to calm down.
Yoga Posters Visual Posters
These posters show a range of different yoga poses for your students to try to help themselves calm down.
Do you any questions about setting up a calm down corner or area in your classroom/home? Or do you have any tips to share with us? If so, leave a comment below.
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