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Creating a calming and reflective space in an Early Years Classroom is difficult at the best of times with all the noise, bright colours, sounds and distractions. There are so many reasons why it just wouldn’t work but trust me. Once you’ve got at set of the Wooden Sensory Rollers, Wooden Sensory Blocks or Wooden Sensory Cylinders you won’t want to miss the opportunity for children to have that space that includes them and offers time for calm and reflection. In this blog I’m going to give you some reasons why it’s important to have those spaces, the impact that I have seen in my classrooms and hopefully some resources and ways you can set your own up Calm Corner and see similar results. I must say – no two settings work the same way, no children are the same and not everything will work for you. I have gone through many trial and error stages before we got it right, and you won’t always get it right – remember that, and that is OK!
Self-regulation is such an important part of children’s development, but many children don’t develop this skill until they are 9 years old or more. This means that we need to co-regulate with children to help them. Co-regulation is often forgotten in the business of the day, there are so many lessons to teach, books to mark and squabbles to sort that by the time you get to a crying child you often don’t feel regulated yourself, let alone able to regulate someone else.
These sensory rollers are perfect for helping children to search or find the hidden item whilst calming and regulating their emotions. You can model using them alongside the children and talking about what you can see and what the animal or item inside makes you think of.
This is where a calm corner, calming area, reflection or sensory calming space comes in. With a small selection of mindful resources which are tactile, physically calming and visually distracting it helps children to breath and calm. This is a vital part of my classroom to ensure that they are able to talk about their emotions, feelings and thoughts. A calm corner is vital to helping children have a place to regulate, take time away from others and for others to give them time and space.
When I introduce a calm corner, I explain simply that the area is for when we want a break from playing with others or feel sad or mad. We go through interactions and times throughout the day that might make us feel all the different emotions e.g. ‘We feel excited when it’s time to go outside.’ ‘We feel sad to go to phonics and tidy up, but we will get to play after.’ ‘We feel upset when someone takes our toy, that’s a good time to use the calm corner.’ ‘We feel sad when our grownups leave in a morning, that’s when we can use the calm corner to help us think about how we will feel when grownups return or the fun things we will get to do. It’s ok to be sad that the grownups have gone to work etc. They will come back.’ .
These sensory rollers are perfect for helping children to search or find the hidden item whilst calming and regulating their emotions. You can model using them alongside the children and talking about what you can see and what the animal or item inside makes you think of.
This is where a calm corner, calming area, reflection or sensory calming space comes in. With a small selection of mindful resources which are tactile, physically calming and visually distracting it helps children to breath and calm. This is a vital part of my classroom to ensure that they are able to talk about their emotions, feelings and thoughts. A calm corner is vital to helping children have a place to regulate, take time away from others and for others to give them time and space.
When I introduce a calm corner, I explain simply that the area is for when we want a break from playing with others or feel sad or mad. We go through interactions and times throughout the day that might make us feel all the different emotions e.g. ‘We feel excited when it’s time to go outside.’ ‘We feel sad to go to phonics and tidy up, but we will get to play after.’ ‘We feel upset when someone takes our toy, that’s a good time to use the calm corner.’ ‘We feel sad when our grownups leave in a morning, that’s when we can use the calm corner to help us think about how we will feel when grownups return or the fun things we will get to do. It’s ok to be sad that the grownups have gone to work etc. They will come back.’ .
Then we make sure to model the resources to the children, explain how the items are used with interest and make sure that they understand how the resources are to be kept. Often I’ll observe the children in the area and model language around their play linked to their feelings e.g. “Wow you’re jumping up and down and smiling. I think you’re feeling happy and ready to go outside?” “x is in the calm corner with the timers, I like how they colours move, it makes me feel calm when I’m sad… what do you like about the timer?” Often the children respond well to these types of questions and begin to use the language themselves when they are talking with others.
Having a calm corner has had such a positive impact on the children’s personal, social and emotional development in my classes as well as helping with their communication and language. They enjoy sharing the resources with each other, using them to help others when they feel sad or upset and recognise how to look after them. Children have such a fantastic ability to be empathetic and recognise emotions in others without realising it, and this has helped to facilitate that.
Having a calm corner has had such a positive impact on the children’s personal, social and emotional development in my classes as well as helping with their communication and language. They enjoy sharing the resources with each other, using them to help others when they feel sad or upset and recognise how to look after them. Children have such a fantastic ability to be empathetic and recognise emotions in others without realising it, and this has helped to facilitate that.
Having access to a variety of sensory items is important for children to explore, choose and use different sensory items to find which ones work best for them. These jelly shapes are great for squidging and squashing in your hands.
To sum it up having a calm corner is one of the most powerful spaces in your classrooms and gives children the space and time to help recognise and learn how to regulate themselves and others. Find the resources they want help themselves and others regulate and use a variety of sensory resources to help stimulate their bodies responses to emotions. The Wooden Sensory Range from KCS is amazing at helping children calm down and regulate and they have such a great variety of products.
To sum it up having a calm corner is one of the most powerful spaces in your classrooms and gives children the space and time to help recognise and learn how to regulate themselves and others. Find the resources they want help themselves and others regulate and use a variety of sensory resources to help stimulate their bodies responses to emotions. The Wooden Sensory Range from KCS is amazing at helping children calm down and regulate and they have such a great variety of products.
