How to Create a Calm Down Corner in Your Classroom in 3 Easy Steps
Whether you are a school counselor or an elementary classroom teacher, chances are you support students with emotional regulation daily. Creating a safe space in your classroom, or school counseling office, is a great way to help your students take ownership of their emotions and learn how to self-regulate independently. And if you’re wondering what that calm corner should look like, I’m going to walk you through exactly how to create a calm down corner in your classroom (in 3 simple steps)!
Hi, I’m Rachel Davis! I’m a former school counselor with over 8 years of experience in the classroom. I specialize in creating easy-to-implement strategies for busy school counselors, and I am the counselor and curriculum designer behind Bright Futures Counseling, a community designed to offer counselors the support they need to feel confident serving their students well.
I support thousands of school counselors and classroom teachers each month, and one of the most common areas of need that I see is with social-emotional learning and helping students develop healthy coping strategies. While it’s seemingly impossible for us to provide one-on-one support to every child every single day, one of the best things you can do is create a calming area in your classroom that encourages students to self-regulate independently!
What is a Calm Down Corner?
Before we dive into how to create a calm down corner, it's important to understand what it is and the purpose it serves.
A calm down corner is more than just adding a cute aesthetic to your school counseling office or classroom. It is a designated safe space, equipped with social emotional learning tools that kids can easily grab and use when they experience big feelings.
It’s important to remember that a calm down corner is NOT a timeout spot where students who are exhibiting poor behavior are sent. When set up intentionally, it is an area that provides healthy coping strategies for children to use to effectively manage their emotions.
Why Create a Calm Down Corner?
There are many benefits to calming corners, including happier teachers, less burdened school counselors, and more regulated students!
Calm Down Corner Benefits for Teachers
If you’re an elementary or middle school teacher reading this, then you are going to love having a calming corner in your classroom. It may take a bit of instructing your students on how to use it, but once it is up and running, it can be such a beneficial emotional regulation tool!
Ideally, a disregulated student will realize they need a break and head to the calming corner instead of disrupting the class. Once in this space, they will choose tools from a self-regulation kit, get back to the green zone for learning, and then return to whatever the rest of their class is working on.
Now we know that this is clearly the ideal outcome, and a more realistic version may look like you as the teacher noticing the student starting to melt down and directing them to the space. You may have to provide explicit direction on when to leave the space and return to the class as well. However, after modeling and practice, your students will get the hang of how to use this space as an intentional tool.
Not only is the calming corner helping the student in need, but it’s not disrupting the learning for the rest of the class. It also gives you a dedicated space with self-regulation materials, so you don’t have to improvise on the fly.
Calm Down Corner Benefits for School Counselors
If you are a school counselor reading this, you, too, are going to love school-wide calming corners!
So often, teachers send a student to us to calm down (you know, the ol’ magic wand). As counselors, we love to help students; however, this approach can be a bit problematic.
We all know that ultimately it’s best to keep the student in the classroom. Remaining in their core learning environment is better for self-regulation and helps reinforce the idea that their general education classroom is a safe space for them to remain in.
Teachers oftentimes feel frustrated because the students who are sent out for disruption appear to be “rewarded” by coming to the counselor’s office. Setting up a calming corner within the classroom helps mitigate this problem.
That being said, the reality is that you are still going to be sent students who are disregulated, and setting up a calming corner in your office is essential for those drop-in students who need immediate support.
Calm Down Corner Benefits for Students
This is who it is all about! The reason we do anything is for student success.
A calming corner is a great way to help students self-regulate and return to an emotional state that is conducive to learning. We cannot prevent all behaviors from occurring, but we can help students better manage them by creating designated calming corners within our school sites.
How to Create a Calm Down Corner in Your Classroom
Now that we know the reasoning behind dedicated calm corners in our offices and classrooms, it’s important to create that space with intention, so that it can be used purposefully in the moment.
Creating a calm corner doesn’t need to cost a ton of money or be a stressful experience. Here are 3 simple steps that you can follow to set up your calming area so that it’s ready for student use.
Step 1: Select a Designated Area for Your Calm Down Corner
The first thing you need to do is decide where you will house your calm down corner. Ideally, you want to use a space in your room that is easy for students to access (and that you can see and monitor from all areas of your room), but that isn’t in the heart of where learning takes place.
A few things to think about:
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A great place for a calm down corner could be an area that backs up to your classroom library
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You may want to choose an area close to your teacher's desk (if you feel that you need to monitor heavily)
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Some teachers like to utilize a cubby area away from the door (to hopefully prevent students from eloping)
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This corner doesn’t need to be a huge space that takes up a large portion of the learning environment
Step 2: Provide Emotional Regulation Tools
After you choose a spot for your calm down corner, the next step is to fill that space with appropriate self-regulation tools and materials that students can easily utilize when in the area.
Here are a few suggestions:
Visuals: Visuals are huge! Hang a few posters or signs explaining the different zones, how students may be feeling, and possible strategies to calm down. You can also include a feelings chart, or Zones of Regulation poster.
Flexible Seating: A nice rug, sequin pillows, and some bean bags are ideal, but you can make do with what you have. The main thing is that you want to distinguish the area from the rest of the classroom so it is clear where it is and what it is intended for.
Calm-down toolbox: A "toolbox" is a great place to keep sensory items, fidgets, glitter bottles, etc. It can be as simple as a plastic tub. Basically, you want the contents to be tactile resources to help students calm down.
Other items in a calming corner could include noise-canceling headphones, calm down coloring sheets, or size-of-the-problem lap books.
Read this guest post to see more ideas of what to include in your calm down corner, and when and how it should be used.
Step 3: Establish Calm Down Corner Expectations and Model
After your calm down corner is set up, it’s time to explicitly teach your students what it is for, how to use it, and your expectations. Skipping this step will cause frustration later on, as students misuse the tools and don’t utilize it for its intended purpose.
I love teaching a whole-class lesson using role-play to simulate different scenarios when it’s appropriate for a child to use the calm down corner, and how it should be used. Students are actively engaged when they are acting out potential situations, and it helps them develop empathy and compassion for struggling students.
Here are a few things to consider before introducing your calm down corner:
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If a student needs to use the calm down corner, will they ask first or provide a nonverbal signal to you?
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How long should a child remain in the calm corner? Will you have sand timers available?
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What is a child allowed to utilize while in the calm down space, and how should they appropriately use these tools?
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What is the role of the other children while a student is using the calm down corner?
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How will you intervene if a child is misusing the calm down corner?
How School Counselors Can Support Teachers with Calm Down Corners
If you have a calming corner in your school counseling office, that’s a great start, but it’s even better if you can get the whole school on board and provide support to classroom teachers!
Establishing a School-Wide Approach to Calming Corners
A few ideas for establishing a school-wide approach include:
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Lead an in-service day to talk about the benefits of calming corners and how they help students (you can reference the benefits mentioned above in this post)! You can even do a “build your own toolkit” workshop.
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Provide teachers with posters, fidgets, and any other materials they may need to be successful. Check out this post for more tips on how to implement a school wide approach to self-regulation.
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Create simple systems for using the calm down corners so that teachers feel confident and well-equipped.
How to Counter Pushback Regarding Calming Corners
The number one push-back I hear from teachers is that the calm down corners will be a distraction and that students will take advantage of them to get out of doing work.
This is a valid concern, and in some instances, it may be true...at first! When teachers and counselors explicitly teach the purpose behind the corner, and model how it is to be used, most students will respect those expectations.
I find that calm-down corners lose their novelty after a while, and most kids are compassionate toward their classmates. If they see a fellow student having a hard time, they know that they need to use the calm-down corner and that it is not a play area.
If it’s a big concern, you can start by having a small group of teachers test it out in their classrooms to get feedback before implementing it school-wide.
Ready-Made Calm Down Corner Resources
I hope you now feel empowered to create a calming corner at your school!
And if you’re looking for low-prep printable and digital calm corner resources made specifically for school counselors and teachers, browse my self-regulation collection for everything you need! You’ll find feelings check-in tools, mindfulness visuals, and classroom-ready emotional regulation resources.
Do you use a calming corner? Share a picture with me on IG @brightfuturescounseling. I can’t wait to see what yours looks like!
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If you are looking for ready-made SEL lessons, planning support, and a community of counselors who understand the unique challenges of this role, you will love IMPACT, my monthly membership for school counselors.
Inside IMPACT, you will receive access to hundreds of counseling resources, monthly professional development with certificates, structured curriculum support, planning tools, and a community of counselors ready to encourage and collaborate with you.
You do not have to navigate school counseling alone. IMPACT gives you the clarity, confidence, and tools to serve your students well all year long.
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