Teach Kids Relaxation Strategies

Teachers can teach students to use the Cool Down Corner in the classroom to help them relax and calm down when they are feeling frustrated.

Did you ever you around your classroom and just know it was going to be a long day for everyone? A couple cranky kids can cause the mood of the entire class to spiral downward and result in discipline problems. Instead of waiting for discipline problems to surface students can learn to teach themselves how to relax in the Classroom Spa or Cool Down Corner. This area is especially useful with students in the primary grades or with special needs.

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What is a Cool Down Corner?

A Cool Down corner is an area of the room where students can go to calm themselves down before they get into trouble. It is not a "time-out" area for students that have gotten out of control and need to be removed; rather it is a place for students to learn how to regulate their own behavior.

What Students Do in a Cool Down Corner

• Play with sand. Show the students how to run the sand over their hands to relax.
• Squeeze stress balls to calm down when they are feeling angry.
• Listen to soothing music while taking deep breaths to settle down. Use headphones to minimize classroom distraction.
• Use crayons to scribble or to draw a picture of what is upsetting them.
• Write about their stressor in a feeling journal to share with the teacher when appropriate.
• Shake a glitter jar and watch the glitter settle at the bottom.

At the start of the school year, or whenever the area is introduced, the teacher explains why and when the students should go to the Cool Down Corner and what they need to do while they are there. A time limit is set on how long one can stay in the corner, if students can’t relax by the end of the time period further strategies and interventions are needed. The teacher models how each to perform each of the strategies and has the students practice using the tools. Then she prompts them to use the spa and encourages them to ask to go there when they feel frustrated.

Teachers can equate the Cool Down Corner to a spa and explain how some adults and even famous sports stars and actors will go to a spa to help them relax when they start to get stressed out. This analogy helps the students to be more comfortable with the idea of going to the corner and takes some of the potential stigma out of the idea.

Teaching students to visit the Classroom Spa for a few minutes to unwind and de-stress will save everyone in the class time by preventing disruptions. Utilizing the Cool Down Corner will also help kids learn the valuable lessons of self-control and anger management, skills that will help them to be successful in life.