Life as an elementary schooler can be a roller coaster with many ups and downs throughout the day. Sometimes students need a safe place to take a break and regroup. A Calm Corner is exactly this! 

Let’s dive into all you need to know about how to confidently set up and implement a Calm Corner that’s beneficial to your students!

What is a Calm Corner?

A Calm Corner is a soothing, safe space where students can deescalate from big emotions, practice calming strategies, and work on their self-regulation.

Calm Corners are NOT “time-out” spots, or disciplinary in any way. They are a positive, reinforcing place that students choose to go to cope with big feelings.

It is a safe space without punishment. 

With practice, students will learn to:

• Identify when they are feeling escalated
• Choose to visit the Calm Corner
• Use coping strategies and tools to manage their feelings
• Evaluate whether they are ready to rejoin the group
• Return to class when their body and brain feel calm

Who Benefits from a Calm Corner?

All students can benefit from a Calm Corner. This space is for any child whose emotions are running high, and who needs support to regain physical and social-emotional control of their body. 

Having a Calm Corner in your classroom or counseling office can make a world of a difference in student behavior, self-management, independence, and self-control.

What You Need to Create a Calm Corner

You really don’t need much room to create a calming space that benefits your students. The goal isn’t a grandiose size, but instead an intentionally crafted area that allows students to consider how they’re feeling and work towards feeling calm again.

Consider including:

• Low lights
• A tent*
• Calming books
• Bean bag or large pillows
• Weighted blanket or pillow
• Soft, shaggy rug
• Calm down visuals
• Sensory toys
• Fidget tools

*if you don’t have room for a tent, consider another way to divide the space from the rest of your room. A tension rod with a curtain or the back of your bookshelf are other terrific options! 

Here is some inspiration for you!

I created this set-up with my Calm Corner visuals set!

And here are some amazing Calm Corner samples from other school counselors like you!

(Photos by: Laura Beth Josar Zaharakis, Molly Miller, Ary Gomez, Youth Intervention Centre, James Norman, Erin Mc, Aubrey Michelle, Tara Goodwin, Kaylei Jones, & Counselor Kait).

(Resources by Music City Counselor, The Responsive Counselor, & Speckled Moose Counseling).

Calm Down Visuals

Appropriate visuals are key in setting up an effective Calm Corner for your students. Oftentimes, students dealing with big feelings are not ready to talk or don’t have the language to express their emotions quite yet. 

Visuals help bridge this gap while still providing support for social-emotional skills and encouraging self-regulation skills. Visual aids also encourage independence and self-reliance in students.

Display posters that help students identify their emotions and practice coping skills like taking deep breaths, counting from one to ten, and imagining a happy place.

Bilingual feelings charts are a great resource for diverse populations.

Display visual options for calming sensory tools, too!

Sensory Tools

(Photo by Rachel Minick).

Including appropriate calming tools is another essential piece of creating a meaningful Calm Corner. You likely have many of these items laying around your office already!

Some of my favorites are:

• Coping Skills Lap Book

• Hoberman sphere
• Liquid timer
• Glitter bottles or wands
• Anger Triggers & Coping Skills Activity
• Tangle fidget
• Squishy ball
• Stress ball
• Pinwheel 
• Pop-it
• Thinking putty
• Coloring pages and crayons (available in my Free Resource Library!)

(Amazon Affiliate Links)

Teach Students How to Use the Calm Corner

Now that you know how to set up your Calm Corner, it’s time to teach your students how to use it! Teaching students social-emotional skills requires explicit, step-by-step directions, just like teaching them reading and math!

Set Calm Corner Rules

To make sure students use your Calm Corner appropriately, safely, and effectively, start by teaching them these five rules (and post them in your space):

1. Quietly signal to your teacher that you would like to visit the Calm Corner.
2. Only 1-2 students can visit at a time.
3. Do not stay for more than 10 minutes.
4. Use the fidgets and sensory toys appropriately.
5. Leave the Calm Corner how you found it.

You can grab this free poster here and in my Free Resource Library!

Calm Corner Lesson

To make this whole process easier on you, and to encourage a smooth learning process and transition for your students, I created this lesson. Students listen to a story about a little boy named Corey who learns to manage his feelings in the Calm Corner in his classroom. Students learn:

• The definition of coping skills
• 6 practical coping skills
• What is a Calm Corner, and how do they help us
• How learning to regulate our emotions helps us with our friendships, learning, and life
• How to connect the material to our own life experiences

This resource also includes posters and visuals to use in your space, discussion cards, a craft, worksheets, and coloring pages! I highly recommend teaching this lesson before introducing the Calm Corner to students so they feel prepared and ready to start using this special space!

Calm Corner Teaching Tips

Here are some additional tips for teaching students how to use your Calm Corner:

• Explain that the Calm Corner is NOT a “time-out” spot. It is a safe space. The Calm Corner is not disciplinary in any way, and is not a place that students are “sent to” for acting out. Instead, it is a positive, safe, and soothing spot that students can choose to go to to help them manage their feelings. Educators can recommend that students visit the Calm Corner if they notice they are escalated, but make sure to do so in a positive, reinforcing way (the student is NOT in trouble!).
• Only allow 1 or 2 students at a time, and visits should be no longer than 10 minutes. Make sure that the Calm Corner is not crowded and that students don’t distract each other (or act out) by only allowing 1 or 2 students to visit at a time. We also want to make sure that students don’t take advantage of or abuse the Calm Corner, so visits should be short.
• Create a signal that students can use to go to the Calm Corner. This should be a discrete, subtle hand gesture that students can use to tell their teacher or counselor that they need to visit the Calm Corner. It should not disrupt the class or bring excessive attention to the child.
• Model and practice coping skills. Explicitly teach students several choices for coping strategies, and practice them often! Encourage teachers to practice them daily in morning meeting, and model them as often as you can in your counseling lessons. We want coping skills to be a natural “go-to” for students, that they start to use without even thinking!
• Teach students how to appropriately use fidgets and sensory toys. Carefully choose the tools that you will use in your Calm Corner and store them in a crate or basket. Sit down with students and show them how to use every single one in an appropriate and meaningful way. Pass them around so students can practice. Teach students to leave the Calm Corner how they found it, and put all fidgets and toys away before they leave.
• Students decide when they are ready to return to the group. With practice, students learn to identify when they need to visit the Calm Corner, and when they are ready to leave it. Teach students how to tell that their bodies and brains are ready to return to class (My Anger Triggers & Coping Skills activity really helps with this). They may need prompting the first few times, but eventually they will know when they are ready to return on their own!
• Closely supervise the process until students have mastered it. Expect issues at first. Like anything else, students will first have to be watched carefully, and supported along the way, when learning how to use the Calm Corner. Expect misbehavior, misuse of fidget toys, and students to take advantage of the space. Stay consistent with your rules, keep an eye on students, and know that they will improve with time (and this learning is all part of the growth process).

Your students’ social-emotional well-being will benefit SO MUCH from this addition to your space.

I’d love to see pictures of your Calm Corner. Send me a DM or tag me on IG!

You might also be interested in:

• Must-Have Books to Help Kids Cope with Anger 
• Everything You Need to Know About Trauma in Children and How to Help 
• Helping Kids Cope with Anxiety 
• Counselor Collab Membership

Feeling overwhelmed with how to meet the needs of all of your students? Take the load off by checking out our Counselor Collab Membership! It’s your one-stop-shop for ALL THINGS school counseling including done-for-you lessons, activities, and small-group curriculum. The ongoing support you’ll find through the Counselor Collab Facebook Community is unmatched. I’d love to meet you there!