How to Set Up a Cozy Corner in Preschool

Do you have students in your classroom who need a little extra help managing their emotions? Creating a cozy corner in your classroom can help your kids learn how to manage their big emotions. A cozy corner learning center provides a safe place for young children to go where they can calm down when they’re feeling mad, sad, nervous, or experiencing any big emotion.

Where to Put Your Cozy Corner

There are so many benefits of having a cozy corner in your classroom. The first thing you should know is that this area doesn’t have to be located in a corner. It doesn’t matter where you put it or what you call it – safe space, calming corner, calm down corner, safe place.

What matters most is that you have an area in your classroom specifically to teach children the skills they need to manage their emotions in safe ways. Ideally, this place should be located away from the loudest areas of your classroom. Easier said than done, am I right?

A Safe Space is Not Time Out

Another important thing you should know about the cozy corner is that it is not for time-out. It’s not a place you send young children who are angry or upset to isolate them from others.

Your safe space should be an area in your classroom where your students want to go to solve problems and regain control of their emotions. Learning how to solve problems and self-regulate their emotions are very important life skills. Your students need to learn these skills now, so they can be successful in school and life. Without these skills they will struggle with both.

The bottom line is that your calming area should not be used as punishment, it should be used as a teaching tool to support the social-emotional needs of the students in your classroom.

What to Put in Your Calm Down Corner

Now that you know the purpose of the cozy corner, and what it’s not, let’s look at the items you may want to include in your calm down corner.

• Books About Emotions and Feelings
• Calming Sensory Bottles
• Pinwheel
• Mini Hoberman Sphere
• Stress Balls
• Stuffed Animals
• Motion Timers (for visual calming, not time out)
• Feelings and Emotions Dolls
• Pillows, bean bag chair, or other soft seating
• Kid Safe Feelings Mirror
• Visual Supports like Posters, Cards, and Social Stories

Some of these items will help make your area feel cozy and inviting, and others are important tools for developing crucial self-regulation skills. Pick and choose the ones that you feel would work best for your classroom and students. Having too much in your calm down corner can lead to more problems, so choose wisely.

When young children are having difficulty managing their emotions they may cry and not be very gentle with the materials. Therefore, it’s important to keep in mind that the items you place in this area will need to be durable and clean easily.

How to Introduce Your Calming Corner

Good teachers know that classroom routines provide a sense of safety and security for young children. Establishing your classroom routines is one of the very first things you do at the beginning of each school year. Without classroom routines in place, it will be difficult for any teaching and learning to take place.

Introduce your calming corner just like you would any other learning center in your classroom. You can start by reading a book about big emotions to your class during your whole group time.

Next, show your students some of the tools that are located in the center and model how to use them. Then, pass some of the items from the center around and invite your kids to touch and feel them.

Finally, move on to introducing the procedures for using this space. Discuss when your students might want to go to the center, what to do in the center while they’re there, how to use the materials, and how to clean-up. This doesn’t have to be done all in one day, you can spread this process out over several days.

Safe Center

I receive many questions about the safe center or cozy corner so I’ve listed some of the most popular questions with answers for you below.

Q: What if my kids just want to play in the cozy corner?
It depends on what you mean by play. If your students choose to go there during center time then that’s fine. Children learn through play; if they’re using the materials as they are intended to be used, then it shouldn’t be a problem.

Q: What if my kids don’t want to go to the calming corner?
Young children will resist doing anything they’re being told to do when they’re having difficulty managing their emotions. Instead, invite them to go there by using carefully worded statements and questions. For example, in a very calm and steady voice say, “I see the corners of your mouth are turned down and your eyebrows are close together. Would you like to go to the calming corner and squeeze one of the stress balls?”

In the example above, you first described what you saw on the student’s face verbally. Then you gave the child a choice to go to the center and an example of what he might do there. But there’s no guarantee the child will want to go to the calming corner. If this is the case, you’ll want to follow up with something like, “You know what I do when I’m feeling (name the emotion)? I like to take deep breaths like this (demonstrate).” This is a way to remind students about the different techniques they can use to manage their feelings.

Frequently Asked Questions About Cozy Corner

Q: How many kids do you allow in the safe space at one time?
Just like with any new center, it will be very popular after it is first introduced to your students. During this introductory phase, you may notice more students visiting this center than you would like. Just know that it is normal and will gradually decrease over time. In the beginning, you may want to set limits on the number of students visiting this center until they become more familiar with it and the materials available there. Remember, they’re practicing self-regulation when they go to this center, which is a good thing!

Q: What if I have a student who is having a full-blown meltdown with extreme behaviors like throwing and hitting? How can I get them to go to the safe space?
When a young child is having a tantrum or meltdown, the most important thing to remember is the safety of that child and the other students in your classroom. Don’t worry about the safe space at that point, it’s designed to be a teaching tool and children can’t learn or be taught while they’re having a meltdown. Instead, focus on moving the other students away from the child and moving objects that may be used to hurt you or the child in crisis.

Instead, you teach, model, and practice how to use the calming strategies and safe center with your students during your large or small group time, not during a meltdown. Remember, during times like this, it’s even more important to remain calm and use a steady, calm voice so you don’t escalate the big emotions they’re having.

Just remember that building self-regulation skills is difficult for many young children and it won’t happen overnight. Whatever you do, don’t give up – you’ve got this!