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Goal

Our goal at Wildlight Elementary School is to help promote positive behavior through various techniques. We are beginning to see an increased amount of students that are hyperactive, easily overwhelmed, and have difficulty controlling their emotions. Often times when a young student begins to escalate due to frustration or sensory overload he/she is unable to regulate their system to help calm them self down back to an appropriate arousal level. We would like to provide a space for every kindergarten and first grade classroom (15 total) to have a sensory break/calming space to facilitate the student being able to regulate them self and come back to the learning environment.

Attached you will find an example of our current calming corner in one of our Kindergarten classrooms. To mass produce, we would build these out of fabric and PVC pipe. 

What will be done with my students

The Calming Corner will be used as a way to both teach the students to identify the big emotion they are having and what tools can be used to help the them regulate the big emotion to a ready to learn arousal state. In the Calming Corner, the student will use the communication board to express how he or she is feeling and then choose 2-3 available manipulatives such as kinetic sand, tactile materials (rice, beans, putty), visual tubes, and other fidgets to gain the sensory input desired in order to refocus and return to the task at hand. The students will have a predetermined amount of time within the Calming Corner and following the end of the allotted time will use the communication board to show how he or she feels after using the sensory manipulatives. 

Benefits to my students

When students are able to part-take in sensory integration activities, they outcome is remarkable. Students are able to regulate their emotions and improve their attention span. While we have approximately 40 students who receive Occupational Therapy at Wildlight Elementary School, there are other students who are not under the ESE umbrella who could benefit from the Calming Corner as well. The universal design of a calming space will be able to benefit all students both with and without a diagnosis. The students will learn how to appropriately identify and express a big emotion, identify an appropriate strategy, and use the strategy to return to a state ready to learn. As a result this can be utilized by every kindergarten and first grade student and reduce disruption to rest of the classroom.  

Budget Narrative

The materials listed above are for 15 classroom Calming Corners (each corner costing $66.65).

The PVC will be used as the frame work for the Calming Corner to be a free standing piece of furniture.

The other materials will be used as the manipulatives for the Calming Corner.  

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