Category Archives: Teacher Support

R is for Relaxation

Posted on by
Reply

bagsWe are honored to participate in a fun “blog hop” called “The ABC’s of Teaching Preschool“, organized by the awesome Deborah of Teach Preschool! Today she reached an incredible milestone of 20,000 “likes” on her Facebook page! Deborah does so much to support early childhood professionals with her blog and her presence on social media – that we are thrilled to be able celebrate with her today! Each participating early childhood blogger has taken a letter of the alphabet and come up with some fun and helpful tips that you can use with the young children in your care!

We chose the letter “R” for “Relaxation” … I’ll bet you are thinking “who gets to RELAX when we’re at preschool!”. 🙂 Well, children and teachers alike all need to find time to take a break in their day to relax and take a breath. As a parent or an early childhood provider, there are times when you need to help your child (or children in your care) to relax. Whether it be to transition from active play to rest time, or to calm a child who is upset; young children often times need assistance to learn the skills they need to relax themselves.

Below are a few ideas that you can use at home or at your school or child care center that you can do with your child. These ideas were shared with us by Michelle Catania, MFT during our IMG0830.JPG.thHealthy Kids workshops in April 2011.

Relaxation bean bags

You can make “relaxation bean bags” to use in activities that will help your child (or children in your care) to relax. These are even great to help a group of children to wind down before nap or rest time. Fill socks with 1-2 cups of rice (depending on the size you want to make). If desired, add 2 drops of fragrance oil for a sensory experience (try lavender for a relaxing scent).

Mix the scent around in the socks so that it gets distributed throughout the rice. Tie the sock closed with ribbon. Choose 2-4 different types of ribbon to tie around the end of the sock. Using different textures of ribbon can add a tactile experience to the bean bag that many children find relaxing.

The weight and texture of the bean bag can be comforting to young children. They can put the bean bag on their shoulder, balance it on the back of their neck, squeeze it in their hand to release tension, rub the textured ribbon to soothe them, etc. You can have children use the relaxation bean bag on it’s own, or with one of the activities below.

Withering flower activity

Have child/children pretend to be a flower starting as a seed (they can do this activity with or without the relaxation bean bags described above). Then have them pretend the flower is starting to bloom and grow, stretching up. If they are using the bean bag, have them balance the bean bag in their hands as they stretch up. Turn off the lights and children slowly wither to the ground.

Balancing Act

Have child/children lay on backs and point their feet in the air. Have them keep their feet horizontal and try to balance bean bag (or other object) so it doesn’t fall.

Another way that teachers can assist young children in relaxing is by creating a quiet space in the classroom. A ‘be-bymyself’ space can be set aside in the classroom for a child to use when he or she feels overwhelmed, upset, or tense. This serves as a protected place where children are taught to go to in order to relax, calm down, or take a break.

(Relaxation activities are adapted from the book “101 relaxation games for children: finding a little peace & quiet in between” by Allison Bartl)

Be sure to check out all the other “ABC’s of Teaching Preschool” by clicking on the button below!

 ABC

Literacy Beginnings – Chapter 22: Observing reading behaviors in preschool

Posted on by
1

Literacy BeginningsWe are nearing the end of our book study of “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell). I have enjoyed all the ideas that I’ve gathered from the book and other bloggers in the Blog Party. We are now at the part of the book that talks about how to assess literacy learning in preschoolers. Now maybe that doesn’t sound as exciting as some of the other chapters … but it was interesting to me, in that this section gives some clear, concrete ways to observe and document reading and writing behaviors. In the words of the authors, this chapter discusses ways to “guide your observations”. And anything that can help teachers best utilize their time and talents when assessing children is worthwhile, and yes .. a little exciting!

“Teachers can become astute observers of reading and writing behaviors and skilled at producing responses which advance the child’s learning.” — Marie Clay

The best way to assess a child’s understanding of basically, anything, is to simply watch them play or work. Take time to interact with them as they play – talk and listen to what they tell you. Teachers do this on a daily basis all year long. So, how do we best document their understanding of literacy? What should we be looking for? And how long will all this assessing take?

I’ll answer the last question first … it doesn’t have to take long at all. The authors suggest observing 2-3 children a day and taking notes (using notecards or a clipboard) – with each observation only taking a few minutes. Doing this periodically 3-4 times a year will give you a great deal of information to aid in your planning and to share with parents.

The authors then discuss three types of reading experiences that can be observed –interactive read-aloud, shared reading and independent book experiences. The behaviors mentioned in the sections below are what you can expect to see from children AFTER they have had many experiences with the types of reading activities listed.

Interactive Read-Aloud

In an interactive read-aloud you read a story to the children and then discuss it. You can point out new vocabulary, talk about the sequence of events in the story, talk about how the story makes them feel, etc.

What should you look for while observing?

When observing a child participating in an interactive read-aloud, the authors give some clear things to look for on page 209 – such as, does the child…
• look at the book while it’s being read
• join in on repetitive parts of the book
• make comments that are appropriate while the story is being read
• make comments after reading that show an understanding of the story

These are specific behaviors that are observable and that teachers can take notes on.

Shared Reading

Shared reading is when teachers and the children read the text together (using big books, flip chart poems or songs or writing a rhyme on the chalkboard).

What should you look for while observing?

The authors give some more specific questions to keep in mind while observing a child during a shared reading activity on page 209 – does the child …
• participate during rereading with some accuracy
• look at the print while reading
• locate a few words in the text
• match spoken with written words (point under each word while reading)

Independent Book Experiences

Ideally, there should be times throughout the prekindergarten day for children to look at books independently or with a friend. Classrooms may have a specific “library time” or it could be a choice for children at specific times of the day. Observing children as they handle books can give teachers some insight into their understanding of literacy. Watching how a child holds the book (right side up), turns the pages (right to left) and talks about the pictures are important behaviors to note.

When observing a child during a reading experience, asking some of the questions below will help you gather specific evidence of that child’s understanding of literacy. The authors list some questions to ask on page 210, such as:
• Point to the title of the book
• Show me your favorite part of the book (and ask why)
• Show me the beginning/ending of the story (and ask what happens at the end)
• Can you find a word that starts with the same letter as your name?

Keeping track of your observations

The authors talk about using simple methods to keep track of your observations, such as on index cards or with a sheet on a clipboard. I came up with a simple “Literacy Assessment Sheet” that can printed and be used on a clipboard and stored in a 3-ring binder. It lists up to 3 children on a sheet (so you can quickly assess up to 3 children at a time). I also setup a fillable form version (opens up in MS Word), if you are transferring notes onto a computer and storing them there.

What methods to YOU use to keep track of your observations of children’s reading behaviors?

To get more indepth descriptions of reading experiences, such as interactive read-alouds and shared reading, refer to the following chapter reviews:
• Pre-K Pages – Chapter 5 and Chapter 13
• The SEEDS Network (Chapter 5)
• Look at my Happy Rainbow (Chapter 11)
• Growing in PreK (Chapter 12)

Next up – is Chapter 23: Observing writing behaviors in preschool!

Grab the button below:

book study blog party


Literacy Beginnings – Chapter 25: An end-of-prekindergarten checkup

Posted on by
Reply

Literacy BeginningsWe are wrapping up our review of how to assess literacy learning in young children as part of the Book Study Blog Party review of the book “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell).

Today’s post is on chapter 25, which provides four simple systematic assessments you can use at the end of prekindergarten to help you record the growth of your students, and provide information to parents and kindergarten teachers. In addition to the formal assessments that we will talk about here – teachers should also collect drawing/writing samples and reading observation notes to be able to show families the progress their prekindergartener has made throughout the year. The quick optional assessments that the authors talk about are: letter recognition, phonological awareness, concepts of print and word writing.

Letter Recognition

To determine a child’s knowledge of letter names, you can make up or use a letter recognition sheet (samples shown on page 221 – and in Appendix L). These are fairly easy to make in a Word processing program – or you can download the letter recognition sheet that we made. By displaying the letters out of alphabetical order, the assessment is truly based on what the child recognizes (not memorizes). Go through the list and ask the child what each letter is, and if you keep getting no response, ask the child “Do you see any letters that you know?”. You can include the date on the sheet and make notes (such as how many letters were recognized).

You can also find letter assessment sheets and other downloadable assessments over at Pre-K pages.

Phonological Awareness

Helping children learn to say words slowly will help them to hear the individual letter sounds in words. Once they can identify the individual sounds, they can identify the individual letters within the words and begin to make that connection. For prekindergarteners, a good way to begin this process is to observe and record a child’s ability to hear the BEGINNING sound of a word. You can do this with initial picture sound cards (such as is shown on page 222 – and in Appendix M). For example, you have a picture of a CAT and say the name of the picture with the child. Then ask if they can tell what letter makes the first sound in “CAT”. The authors suggest showing pairs of pictures with the same beginning sound (ie. CAT / CAKE) to help the child hear the beginning sound (in this example, the letter “C”).

Phonological awareness can also be assessed by observing the child’s ability to hear RHYMES in words (the ENDING sounds). You can assess this similarly using picture cards and matching up pictures of objects that rhyme (ie. CAT / HAT). Rhyming card sheets are shown on page 223 and in Appendix N.

Concepts about Print Interview

Another assessment suggested in the book is to help you assess how well a young child understands print. Begin by using a sentence strip with the child’s name inserted (I will use an example like the author’s give on page 224):

Sarah and I can see the sun.

Point to each word while reading the sentence to the child. Then you can give the child a series of instructions to gather information about his/her understanding of print. Some examples are:
• Point to your name.
• Point to the first letter of your name.
• Point to the letter “I”.
• Where do you start reading?

Word Writing

The last optional assessment the authors suggest is word writing. You can ask the child to write his/her name or any words that he/she knows (you can guide this along by suggesting some words the child might know like MOM, DAD, CAT, etc.). You can ask the child “What did you write here?” and print the word next to theirs. This can be collected with other writing samples throughout the year and will show their progress in understanding print.

We have come to the end of the last chapter of our online book study! We’d love to hear your feedback!

What did you think of this book study? What is one thing new thing that you learned that you will definitely use in your classroom this year?

Thanks so much for joining us – and I hope you will visit us and all the wonderful early childhood blogs who participated often!

Grab the button below:

Pre-K Pages


Literacy Beginnings – Chapter 24: Observing for sound, letter and word knowledge

Posted on by
Reply

ABCWe continue on with talking about how to assess literacy learning in young children as part of the Book Study Blog Party review of the book “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell).

In chapter 22 we talked about ways teachers can observe reading behaviors. Chapter 23 discusses ways teachers can observe writing behaviors by watching children in shared, interactive and independent writing activities. We are now on chapter 24, which talks about ways to observe young children for evidence of sound, letter and word knowledge.

For 3 year olds, formal assessing on sound and letter knowledge probably isn’t necessary. Rather, the authors suggest observing this age group for evidence of growing awareness of letter and sound knowledge as they participate in activities during their day. For four year olds, you can gather more information from formal assessments using some of the questions that are listed in this chapter.

Assessing awareness of sounds

Hearing individual sounds in words is an important early literacy skill. The key to being able to assess how well a child is able to do this is by encouraging them to say the word slowly. See the chapter 8 review on phonemic awareness and phonics to learn more about how to teach about the sounds of language. Evidence of sound awareness can be assessed by asking some of the following questions that the authors list on page 217.

Can the child:
• say the word slowly?
• identify the first and/or last sound of word?
• say a sound in response to a letter?

Assessing awareness of letters

Before they can connect a letter to a sound, children must learn how to identify individual letters. Chapter 19 discusses in depth about helping children to learn about letters and words. To help teachers observe a child’s understanding of letters, you can use some of the questions suggested by the authors (listed on page 217) – can the child:

• match letters that are the same?
• find a certain letter among a group of letters?
• find the letters in his/her name?
• quickly locate a letter after it’s named?

Assessing awareness of words

It is a great accomplishment for a prekindergartener to make the connection that letters put together make up words that have meaning to them. The concept that their name is a word is one of the first example of this that they can learn (check out the chapter 20 review on Names). Color words are also a common early concept that prekindergarteners may start to learn. Most children at this age will not yet be able to read words, but will show other signs of a growing understanding of words. To assess this, the authors suggest asking some of the following questions (full list on page 217) – can the child:

• recognize his/her name (by itself or among a list)?
• recognize his/her name embedded in print?
• recognize some frequent environmental words (“STOP”, “UP”, etc)?
• demonstrate knowing the difference between a letter and a word?

The next chapter we will review is chapter 25, which provides four simple systematic assessments you can use for letter recognition, phonological awareness, concepts of print and word writing.

Top photo credit: Maggie Smith/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Grab the button below:

Pre-K Pages


Improving literacy through sign language

Posted on by
Reply

colleen ReadingI’m Colleen Brunetti, and I’m pretty excited to join you all here on the SEEDS Blog! Before I dive into my topic, for today, I wanted to take just a minute to further introduce myself. Perhaps you’ve read my bio – primarily the list of professional pursuits and passions I find myself chasing. But to know how I got here, I have to look back there, way back, to my childhood.

By my parents’ account, I was a voracious reader from the very beginning. They used to read to me for hours a day (and we all know how incredible that is for your kid… right?!?) and I was an early reader before Kindergarten. The love continued and one of my mom’s favorite stories is how I had a playdate (um, except we didn’t call it that back then!) and things got suspiciously quiet. You know when kids are quiet you should worry, right? So she sneaks up to my room to catch us at whatever it is we’re up to and finds us… reading. Yes, I had playdates where I read. In short, I was a happy and social nerd.

When it came time to choose my Master’s Degree program many years later, the answer was simple, I would major in Reading, and so I became a reading specialist.

Life took one unexpected turn after another, and I found myself no longer in the public schools, and searching for a job I could do at home. In short, I founded my company where the goal was to teach sign language to kids, caregivers, and teachers. I had fallen in love with sign language at age 18 when I played the roll of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, so the fit was natural.

Soon after I started this endeavor, I picked up the book “Dancing With Words: Signing for Hearing Children’s Literacy” by Dr. Marilyn Daniels. As she says in the very first sentence of the very first chapter, “This book is about sign language, and how sign language can be used to improve hearing children’s English vocabulary, reading ability, spelling proficiency, self-esteem, and comfort with expressing emotions.”

She goes on to talk about many other things sign language helps support, and it’s all great stuff, but it was this idea of improving literacy that really stuck with me. I was floored that in all my years pursuing a love of literacy, both personally and professionally, and with my fairly extensive signing background, I had never put the two together before. Yet, here it was, laid out in 175 fascinating pages: how to harness the power of sign language to support children’s literacy, the literacy of all children… and you didn’t even have to know a lot of sign to get started.

Needless to say, I’m hooked on the concept. I don’t know why sign language wasn’t in my grad work, why it isn’t in every early childhood care program, preschool, and even beyond into the early elementary grades. It all just makes so much sense! But, The SEEDS Network has been kind enough to share a little piece of cyber space with me, and I’m excited to bring you more on the topic!

Using visual timers in preschool

Posted on by
Reply

timerWe have used audio timers in our preschool classroom for years. The timer will buzz when it’s time to clean up toys or when snack time is over. The timer has been used to help children in sharing toys – if a child wants to play with a toy that another child has, teachers will set the timer and when it goes off, it’s time for the toy to be shared with the other child.

This has all worked well enough, but there is definitely something missing. In the case of an audio timer, the child(ren) have no idea WHEN the time is almost up – they are just waiting to hear the bell/buzzer. What is helpful is for children to have something visual.

During the second half of our school year, we were fortunate enough to get visual timers in all our classrooms. Visual timers are great for helping children begin to get a sense of the “passing of time”. They can SEE how much time is left to play/snack/rest or whatever they are doing. At first, some of the younger children were mesmerized by the visual timer. They would stare and wait for the “red” to run out, (and when it did, they would cheer!!). Once they got used to it, it became a very useful tool for teachers, especially when children needed to “wait” for something to happen. They could watch the passage of time and know when it was getting close to whatever they were waiting for.

To learn more about using visual timers, here is a short clip from the Cooperative Kids Cable TV show hosted by our Parenting Expert Bill Corbett. I had the privilege to be a guest on the show and talk about how we use visual timers in our preschool classroom:

Do you use timers in your preschool classroom? How have you/would you use a visual timer?

Bill Corbett is the author of the book Love, Limits, & Lessons® and the founder and president of Cooperative Kids.

Photo Credits: © 2011 Bill Corbett / Cooperative Kids All Rights Reserved

Literacy Beginnings – Chapter 23: Observing writing behaviors in preschool

Posted on by
Reply

writingPicAs we continue to review “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell) as part of the Book Study Blog Party – we will now look at ways to assess writing behaviors in young children.

Similar to observing reading behaviors, teachers can observe writing behaviors by watching children in shared, interactive and independent writing activities.

Shared/Interactive Writing

Shared and interactive writing is when teachers and children write a story, poem or book together. In shared writing, the teacher does the writing with contributions from the children. Interactive writing allows for the children to do some of the writing (maybe writing a letter or word).

Shared/interactive writing activities are done as a group, but teachers can still observe individual children to assess their level of understanding. As with observing reading behaviors, a teacher can plan to observe 3-4 children a day.

On page 213, the authors list some behaviors to notice when observing a child participate in a shared/interactive writing activity. Here are a few of the behaviors from that list –does the child:
• Show that they know the routine of shared/interactive writing?
• Contribute ideas for sentences?
• Suggest understandable sentences?
• Look at the print while rereading the message as it is being constructed?

Independent Drawing , Writing and Bookmaking

Children in a preschool environment come home with many drawings and early writing markings throughout the school year. Some go on the fridge, and some are recycled or thrown out. Teachers take the time to see the learning behind the marks! Taking or photocopying samples of children’s work throughout the year can show a clear progression from marks on the page to eventually letters and words.

Using a notecard/clipboard system, teachers can observe and note specific behaviors when it comes to children’s drawing and writing. On page 213, some items the authors suggest looking for are:
• does the child appear eager to draw or write
• does the child talks about his/her drawings or writing in an understandable way
• does the child experiment with all kinds of marks on the page to represent writing
• does the child “read” the story that they wrote

Bookmaking takes the children’s literacy understanding to the next level. When observing a child making a book, the authors suggest asking some of the following questions (page 214:
• Are the ideas in the book connected in some way?
• Do the illustrations represent meaning?
• Is the child intentional about what is being represented on the pages?
• How does the book sound when the child “reads” it?
• How long did the child remain attentive while working on the book?

Assessments

The authors state that assessments shouldn’t involve a lot of extra work or take a teacher’s time away from the children. They again suggest using a simple system, like index cards or a clipboard with assessment questions you select . I put together a simple Writing Behaviors clipboard assessment sheet (to assess 3 children at a time), with a fillable form version as well.

Keeping samples of a child’s writing work throughout the year is a great way watch a child’s progression along the writing continuum. There are many ways to store these samples, and again – we want something quick and efficient. One simple method to store samples children’s work is using a crate and file system.

We have used this system at my school for many other uses (such as parent-teacher communications). But this will work very well to store a child’s writing and drawing samples – as it is a quick way for a teacher to file them, rather than taking extra the time to put them in a binder or 2 pocket folder. Simply label each hanging folder with the child’s name, put them in alphabetically order and you are good to go! Take it a step further and ask children to file their OWN work when they have completed it. This saves the teacher time, and also gives the child some independence and MORE practice with literacy by having to find their name. They also learn to recognize their friends names, as well.

What methods to YOU use to for storing and assessing children’s work?

To get more indepth descriptions of writing experiences, such as shared/interactive writing and bookmaking, refer to the following chapter reviews:
• Pre-K Pages – Chapter 5
• PreKinders (Chapter 16)
• Growing in PreK (Chapter 17)

Check back next week for reviews of the last 2 chapters in this section. The first one will be about observing children for evidence of sound, letter and word knowledge.

Grab the button below:

Pre-K Pages


Introducing our Early Literacy Expert!

Posted on by
Reply

ColleenProfileWe are glad to introduce a new member to our expert panel – Colleen Brunetti … our Early Literacy (and Signing) Expert! Our experts will provide guest blog posts on specific topics, and help to answer questions that are submitted to us by our readers.

Colleen Brunetti is a Masters level educator with a heart for kids who need that special boost. She holds an undergraduate degree in Special Education and triple majored in Special Education, Elementary Education, and Communications. Her Master’s Degree is in Literacy, focusing on diagnostic and remedial services for children at risk and/or experiencing reading difficulties. She has also completed additional post-graduate work as a Reading Consultant, with training in designing and implementing reading programs, and creating and leading professional development opportunities for teachers.

After seven years in the public school systems, where she worked as both a special educator and a reading specialist, she left the classroom to stay at home more with her son. For the past three years she has been an online college instructor with the Community College of Vermont, which has allowed her to stay at home and continue her commitment to teaching at the same time. In the Spring of 2010, Colleen started the company “Little Hands, Big Ideas“, which specializes in sign language for kids, caregivers, and teachers.

Tressa and I met Colleen at our Early Childhood EXPO in January 2011, where she did a workshop presentation on using sign language with young children. We are so happy to have Colleen Brunetti on our panel, and we are looking forward to her posts on early literacy and signing. This is a very timely discussion, with our current book study of “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell), too!!

Do you have a question on early literacy or signing with your kids/students? You can ask your questions by commenting below, or using the ‘Ask the expert’ submission form on the right-hand side of our blog!

littlehands

Book study – language and literacy teaching

Posted on by
Reply

language and literacy teachingWe are continuing to read “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell) as part of the Book Study Blog Party. Chapter 5 is titled “Using a Framework for Language and Literacy Learning.

The chapter starts off talking about essential learning experiences that need to be included in a prekindergarten classroom (some activities occur daily – others over the course of a week). Activities such as circle time, outdoor play, projects (inquiry), choice time, reading and writing time are explained. But the authors then focus on those activities that promote language and literacy. We will touch on the reading activities that are talked about.

Reading Activities

The authors talk about 3 essential literacy activities: Read-Aloud and Shared Reading, Book activities and Library time. With an interactive read-aloud, teachers read books to the children and talk with them about the story. Teachers can make the story interactive by asking the children questions, talking about new vocabulary, pointing to the illustrations and encouraging discussion. Shared reading is when teachers and the children read the text together (using big books, flip chart poems or songs or writing a rhyme on the chalkboard).

Book activities are my personal favorite (usually done after one of the above reading experiences). It was great to read in this chapter how children respond to literature by participating in an activity after reading it. Here are a few fun book activities that you can try:

1. Emotion Book- During the beginning of the school year, we read “Llama llama misses mama” by Anna Dewdney (a new classic!). Children can easily relate to how Little Llama misses his mother on the first day of school. This book provides a great opportunity for conversation about feelings and emotions. In this activity, children help to make an “Emotion book” for the classroom – by either drawing different emotion faces, or having children act out the emotion and take their picture to make up a book.

2. Little Llama’s Daily Schedule – In this activity, we make a visual schedule of our daily activities and compare them to Little Llama’s school schedule. The children get excited to make the connection between their preschool experience and Little Llama’s!

3. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” (and other Eric Carle) ideas – We recently participated in an Eric Carle birthday celebration – where we posted some of our favorite “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” ideas. This story is engaging on its own with its vivid illustrations – but it also lends itself to great discussions and activities about caterpillars and the butterfly life cycle.

Here is a butterfly life cycle bracelet that kids can make:

I encourage you to read the full review of this chapter by Vanessa at Pre-K Pages . Vanessa’s review also talks about some of the other topics discussed in this chapter, such as writing activities and communication with parents, so be sure to check it out!

Keep on reading! There is so much in this book!

Grab the button below:

Pre-K Pages


Preschoolers need a quiet space, too

Posted on by
6

PreschoolersIn an earlier post, I shared some information from the Early Childhood Consultation Partnership© (ECCP) about the need and benefits of creating a quiet space for infants and toddlers in a child care setting. Now I’d like to share some additional information from ECCP on ways to incorporate a quiet space in a preschool classroom.

Preschoolers may need quiet time for themselves at different points of the day. A full day of childcare can be stressful and difficult to manage for some young children. A ‘be-bymyself’ space can be set aside in the classroom for a child to use when he or she feels overwhelmed, upset, or tense. This serves as a protected place where children are taught to go to in order to relax, calm down, or take a break. A teacher can join the child, if he or she needs support in calming down or feeling secure.

Here are some tips for creating a quiet space in a classroom:

  • Consider creating with children a ‘be-by-myself ‘space or ‘cozy area’ within a small contained area in your classroom (ex. play hut, tent, cushioned space, etc.). You may include items such as, pillows, a bean bag chair, feelings books, and photos. Be sure this area is visible to teachers.
  • View this as a quiet, protected place where a child can choose to go if he or she becomes overwhelmed, upset, or angry. Teachers may also encourage a child to go to this space. It is important that this is not used as a consequence or “Time Out.”
  • Teach children how to use this area ahead of time, creating rules, such as ‘one at a time.’ Continue to make this an important part of your classroom by reviewing what it is for, modeling, and making periodic changes to keep it interesting.
  • Practice relaxation techniques with children ahead of time, such as blowing up like a balloon, stretching or counting to ten on his or her fingers, suggest he or she repeat these things in the ‘be-by-myself’ space or ‘cozy area’. Place visual reminders of these techniques in the cozy area.

Some items that you can use and even create with the children are a cozy corner worksheet and an emotions booklet (with pictures of the children making faces of different feelings).

What kinds of things do you put in your “cozy corner” or “quiet space”?

Resources:
Organizing Classroom and Outdoor Learning Environments
White, C. S., & Coleman, M. (2000).
Soft Spaces www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/softspaces/index.html

Brought to you by:
ECCP
Early Childhood Consultation Partnership©
A program of Advanced Behavioral Health www.abhct.com
Funded by CT Department of Children & Families