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Cozy Calm Down Corner for 2-4 year olds
- Gabrielle Fischer Posted On Aug 27, 2021 | 2 - 4 Years SEL
Nervous, agitated, frustrated, oh my! Learning how to respond to big emotions during early childhood is an important social-emotional learning goal, but no small task! This can be particularly challenging when they may not have the vocabulary to understand and express their own emotions, causing them to act out even more. Creating opportunities for your toddler or preschooler to practice identifying emotions and learn specific strategies to calm their bodies and regulate those emotions can help!
In order to support this social-emotional learning, particularly as our child re-enters in-person school environments and needs to navigate new routines and social situations with classmates, we created a “Cozy Calm Down Corner” in our home to give our budding preschooler a safe place to recognize and regulate her big, challenging feelings.
Note, however, that visiting the “Calm Down Corner” is not a penalty or “time out” space to isolate our child when she’s perhaps made poor choices or exhibited inappropriate behaviors as a result of her big feelings. Those punitive spaces only send the message that normal feelings like anger, sadness, or frustration are bad and should be hidden away. Instead, the “Cozy Calm Down Corner” is a quiet place where she can retreat and feel safe to work through her big feelings, whatever they are, as well as an opportunity for her caring adults to lean in and provide support as needed.
So, what might you place in a “Calm Down Corner” to foster a healthy release and response to big emotions? Certain items can help your child learn useful techniques to deal with those feelings that are safe, non-destructive, and transferable to situations out in the world where there may not be a “cozy corner.” For instance, we included:
- Cozy stuffed animals, pillows and/or a blanket. These items not only provide comfort but can be used to snuggle/hug, provide calming sensory input (think of stroking something soft or being grounded by a weighted blanket), or even something safe to punch if angry/aggressive feelings need a safe, physical outlet.
- Small, unbreakable mirror. A mirror can serve multiple purposes, including allowing your child to watch themselves take deep, calming “belly breaths'' in through their nose and out through their mouth. When calm, they can also practice making different facial expressions and identifying different emotions in their reflections. Learning Resources All About Me 2-in-1 Mirrors have the added benefit of a “fun” mirror on the other side, which warps reflections and creates silly faces to brighten anyone’s mood.
- Books. You can include your child’s current favorite reads to help them calm down and/or titles that specifically feature characters who are having and responding to various emotions. When your child is ready, use the latter to discuss how these characters work through difficult situations and challenging emotions. Some titles we’ve discussed include Will Giraffe Laugh? by Hilary Leung (board book), The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld (picture book), and Big Feelings by Alexandra Penfold (picture book).
- Toy/tool to display and explore emotions. Sometimes, when you don’t have the language to describe how you’re feeling, having an engaging toy like the Learning Resources Big Feelings Pineapple can be a useful tool for making your emotions known.
- Glitter jar or I-Spy sensory bottle. Create your glitter jar or I-spy bottle. As your child explores the jar/bottle, watching or finding the falling pieces inside provides a quiet, focused activity while their bodies calm down. For instance, we created two I-Spy bottles to swap out in our Calm Down Corner using the Learning Resources Primary Science Sensory Tubes -- one with a sand base, the other white rice, and confetti pieces. We filled both tubes with small items/loose parts from around the home for our children to hunt and discover by rolling and turning the tubes in their hands.
The items in your Calm Down Corner don’t need to remain stagnant or look exactly like ours. You know your child best -- their age, favorite comfort items, and developmental needs all play a role and will change over time. You might also try:
- A small pinwheel. Using a pinwheel encourages your child to take deep breaths and blow out any negative feelings.
- Music or audiobooks. Sometimes, listening to some soothing or favorite stories or songs can provide a calming or mood-brightening response as they shift our attention and focus to something new. It might also provide the opportunity to “dance out” any big feelings!
- Drawing supplies. Children can either draw to relax, illustrate how they are feeling or something that makes them happy, or use the materials (crayons and paper, chalk and chalkboard) to “angry draw” out their emotions as a form of release.
Don’t have space for an entire “Cozy Calm Down Corner”? No problem. Put a few things in a special basket or box that your child can easily access whenever and wherever they need it!
Children learn to understand and manage their emotions with practice. Implementing strategies and spaces like “Calm Down Corners” can foster that learning in a safe, fun, and supportive way that’s easily adaptable to your own child’s needs and interests.
About the Author, Sarah Yale: With a background in education, youth development, and restorative justice, Sarah Yale wears many hats, including Mom and Librarian. She endeavors to combine her love of children's books and the great outdoors to plan inclusive, play-based activities that foster curiosity and social-emotional learning. An advocate for literacy development, loose parts, and sensory play, Sarah's activities invite you to lean in, read up, and get messy together! See more of her ideas on Instagram at @staycurious_sadertot.
Mid-Summer Minicamp for Four-Year-Olds
Summer marches on, and many families are ready for some fresh new activity ideas to keep their kids engaged and learning. To help liven things up – and prepare your four-year-old to start preschool in the fall – we’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for preschoolers (click for minicamps for three- and five-year-olds, too). Check out these fun ideas, starting with:
Minicamp Day One:
Developmental Activity – Find a Common Thread
Kick off your first day of camp with some fine motor fun! Threading is an age-appropriate challenge for four-year-olds, resulting in a colorful creation they can wear or display. Set out some pipe cleaners and pony beads and thread a bracelet, create a beaded pattern for your preschooler to follow, or stick some spaghetti sticks into a ball of molding dough and thread penne noodles to make Stegosaurus. Find more threading ideas here.
Educational Activity – Make an Ice Balloon
Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.
Social Emotional Learning Activity – Explore Big Feelings
Solid social-emotional skills are a must for preschool. This free, downloadable, matching worksheet will help your little one learn to recognize emotions, from silly to sad to calm and nervous. Then talk about the feelings that go with each face, whether your child has ever felt that feeling, and what they might do to help a friend who’s feeling the same.
✨ Bonus Activity – Feeding at the Farm ✨
If your camper can’t get enough animals, they’ll love this fun-on-the-farm activity! Set out a few plastic bowls filled with animal “food” (think oats, dry pasta, chickpeas, and nuts), then let your little one use a spoon to fill cupcake liner “troughs.” Place the troughs on a play tray and your plastic farm animal figurines, and watch the pretend play unfold!
Minicamp Day Two:
Developmental Activity – Set Up an Apple Sensory Bin
Nothing says summer quite like apple pie! Kick off day two of minicamp with a sensory stimulating activity bin full of oats, play apples (or red, green, and yellow pom poms), scoopers, sifters, tongs, cups, and spoons, and let your little learner loose. Sorting and matching by color and size is a key foundational math skill, and manipulating the tools in the bin builds fine motor skills. Find more ways to play here.
Educational Activity – Explore Animal Habitats
This hands-on habitat activity lets kids learn about different animals and their various environments! Start by asking your child to choose a favorite animal figure. Talk about where that animal might live, what they might eat, and what you’ll need to create the perfect habitat. Take a walk around the house, out back, and to the park to collect these items, then build your habitats using a shoebox or Tupperware container, dirt, sand, rice, pebbles, bark, twigs, beads, marbles, etc.
Social Emotional Learning Activity – Play School
Playing school is a wonderful way to build your child’s creativity and imagination. It also allows your soon-to-be-scholar to mentally prepare for going to school and build the confidence they’ll need to thrive there. Set up some school-ish materials, like a chalkboard or easel, books, paper and crayons, and stickers, and follow your little one’s lead. Will they read to their stuffed animals? Teach you letters and numbers? Draw a picture?
✨ Bonus Activity – Make Hidden Veggie Popsicles ✨
Nothing is nicer after a day of summer minicamp than a delicious popsicle! Follow our favorite recipe for fruit and veggie pops, working together to squeeze the lime, drop the ingredients into the blender, stir the elements, and insert the popsicle handles. Talk about the foods as you work with them – what color are they? What is their texture like? What letter does that food start with? How might it taste?
Minicamp Day Three:
Developmental Activity – Have Some Fantastical Fine Motor Fun
Day three of your minicamp will be fantastic, thanks to our printable preschool worksheets! Build hand strength, graphomotor skills, hand-eye coordination, and more with a pack of free, fantastical preschool printables, including color by numbers unicorn, a mystery maze, and a coloring sheet. Then practice cutting with kid-safe scissors to create pretend play unicorn and dragon masks.
Educational Activity – Print Letters in Playdough
Practice letter identification, letter sounds, and word building with this simple stamp-and-learn activity! Set out some molding dough (or make your own – another fun minicamp activity!), tools like plastic rolling pins, cutters, kid-safe scissors, and letter blocks or magnets. Then show your child how to flatten the dough and stamp a letter into it. Say the letter name as they stamp, make its sound, and say a word that starts with that letter. See if your child can find the letters in their name and stamp them all in a row.
Social Emotional Learning Activity – Practice Kindness
Knowing other people’s feelings and doing what you can to help are two hugely important SEL skills. Put your playdough letter practice to good use by thinking of a friend or family member who might enjoy receiving a picture or letter from your child in the mail, then make one! Help your little one write a simple message, draw or paint an image to go with it, address an envelope, insert their work, and let your sweetie apply the stamp. Walk the letter to the mailbox, and off it goes! Find other ways to practice everyday kindness here.
✨ Bonus Activity – DIY Terrarium ✨
Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.
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Mid-Summer Minicamp for Three-Year-Olds
With summer vacation well underway, many parents are looking for fresh new ideas for summer fun and for ways to keep their kids’ brains engaged. We’re sharing three days’ worth of unplugged developmental, educational, and social-emotional learning activities designed specifically for three-year-olds (click for minicamps for four- and five-year-olds). So, turn off the screens and shake up your summer routine, starting with:
Minicamp Day One:
Developmental Activity – Make Swampy Jungle Footprints
Start your day with some fine motor fun! Build fine motor skills, hand strength, and hand-eye coordination with a batch of swampy brown Oobleck and plastic toys you have around the house. Toddlers use animal figurines, toy cars, and other shaped toys to make imprints in the Oobleck, then use their hands to smooth the Oobleck out and make another print with another toy. Find the Oobleck recipe and instructions for our Swampy Jungle Footprints activity, here.
Educational Activity – Learn Your Letters
Shift from motor skills to a letter learning deep dive with this fun underwater activity (also great for bathtime!). Fill a bin with bubbly water, add a plastic scooper or cup, tongs, plastic tweezers, a whisk, and a clean dish scrubber, then drop in some plastic letters or letter magnets. Say the name of each letter as your child extracts it, make its sound, and say a few words that start with that sound. Find step-by-step instructions here.
Social Emotional Learning Activity – Set Up a Calm Down Corner
A calm down corner is the perfect place for little ones to process big feelings and your kiddo can help you get yours set up! Choose a quiet, low-traffic spot, then let your child choose a favorite pillow, blanket, books, and stuffed animals. Select some soft, soothing music – together – and you’re all set for the next time they need a quite minute to gather themselves. Learn more about calm down corners, here.
✨ Bonus Activity – Make a Splash ✨
Once the day has heated up, head outside for some water play! Water play builds motor skills, coordination, and balance, encourages new vocabulary, and introduces simple science and even a bit of math – and it’s so simple! Find ten fun water play activities here, from trike wash and sponge toss to color labs and science experiments.
Minicamp Day Two:
Developmental Activity – Build Balance and Coordination
Kick off the day with fun physical activities designed to build your toddler’s gross motor skills! Head outside and challenge your child to a game of hopscotch, catch, freeze tag, or follow the leader. Use painter's tape to make a balance beam and see if your little one can walk the line. When it gets too hot for outside play, go wild inside, replicating the way different animals move (find inspiration on YouTube first!) and see who can stand still on one leg the longest or frog hop the highest. Find details about ten balance and coordination activities here.
Educational Activity – Learn All About Butterflies
Slip some science into your toddler’s summer with this multi-activity butterfly lesson! Click here for step-by-step instructions to make your caterpillar and butterfly puzzles, then add a sensory-stimulating step by filling each section with dry beans, rice, and noodles. Add a library book about butterflies and use proper vocabulary to describe their amazing transformation.
Social Emotional Learning Activity – Make a Fizzy Rainbow in the Clouds
Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.
✨ Bonus Activity – Color ✨
Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.
Minicamp Day Three:
Developmental Activity – Go Buggy
Exploring sensory bins can be a calming and soothing activity for many kids and learning to self-soothe is a key social emotional skill! Set up an extra-special sensory experience by following these instructions to create a colorful sensory bin using baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and an eyedropper and watch as your little one explores the texture of the mixture, creates colored sections, and mixes new colors together.
Educational Activity – Sort It Out
Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.
Social Emotional Learning Activity – Grow a Garden
Sorting objects by shape, size, or color is a key early math skill. You can help your kiddo practice their sorting skills at home with four DIY worksheets and a set of counters (or colorful pompoms, buttons, blocks, etc., if you don’t have counters). Follow these instructions to create sorting houses, color lines, stepping stones, and other sorting worksheets.
✨ Bonus Activity – Make a Shaving Cream Rain Cloud ✨
Are you tired of the summer heat? Make your rain cloud out of shaving cream and food coloring! Drop food coloring, one color at a time, onto a clear glass of water topped with shaving cream until the cream “cloud” becomes saturated enough to rain – just like real clouds! Then watch as a rainbow of colors is released from the bottom of the cloud into the water. Find step-by-step instructions for making your rainbow cloud here.
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Montessori’s 5 Cs-Raising a Curious, Confident Learner
Montessori’s 5 Cs
Raising a Curious, Confident Learner
If you’re familiar with the Montessori method, you know that schools following these teaching principles focus on child-guided, hands-on learning. There are no lectures or timelines – students explore concepts at their own pace, in their own way, working until their personal curiosity is satisfied. In fact, curiosity is the first of Montessori’s powerful “Cs”. Learn more about these concepts so that you can support your child as they follow their own learning path at home:
Curiosity – Present your child with an activity, demonstrate it for them, then step back and let them explore on their own. Watch as they discover various elements on their own, using each piece or the whole as they wish. Let them play as long as they are interested, without intervening, but redirect if you sense they are becoming frustrated.
Communicating – Speak to your child calmly and lovingly. Praise their exploration, curiosity, patience, and perseverance rather than their efforts or outcome. Encourage them to continue exploring and ask them questions about what they’re doing. Demonstrating positivity and support not only builds self-confidence in your child, it also teaches your child how to speak kindly to others.
Correcting – The ability to recognize a mistake and try again – without becoming frustrated or defensive – will serve your child well throughout their life. Teach them that mistakes are part of the learning process by gently redirecting problems and suggesting a possible solution to try next. Sticking with a problem is more important than getting it right the first time.
Conceptually – You may have heard about Growth Mindset – the idea that everyone is capable of learning a concept and just because a student doesn’t understand it – YET – doesn’t mean they never will. Montessori believes that learning is a journey and there is much to be learned by the process itself. Encourage your child as they embark on the journey and every step of the way.
You can build a curious, confident learner by following these tips from Montessori. Set out a new activity for your little one today and see how they respond!
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