Back in the Classroom!

Well, it has been a long time since I posted! The scrapbooking blogger community has dispersed for the most part it seems, and that was one of the main reasons I started a blog.

Then since I wasn’t scrapbooking as much, I really enjoyed sharing travel posts for awhile. I do have two big trips I can share on future posts and just might. We had an epic trip driving down the coast of California in 2019. Then the pandemic hit which changed so much in regards to just living and enjoying life! But we also managed to take an amazing trip to Wyoming as well in 2021. 

But the big life event that changed for me in 2020 besides the arrival of Covid 19, was my decision to return to teaching full time that Fall.

I know, I know. What a crazy time to go back to teaching, right?? But my husband had just returned to traveling out of town for work after 18 months at home. My oldest had just graduated high school and was off to college. Something just told me it was time, and I found the perfect first grade position at my daughter’s school. 

I decided to dust off my blog and create a post about one of the most popular spots in my classroom - the Calm Corner, because I plan on sharing a Reel on Instagram, but felt it needed more explanation. 

Last year my teaching partner and I had an aha moment when we realized we needed to slow down the curriculum a bit and focus on social-emotional growth with the kids. This pandemic has been so stressful for everyone, and it has affected the kids just as much if not more. We were seeing them exhibit an intense need for immediate gratification, lack of patience, and more emotional outbursts and meltdowns then usual. The maturity level that would be typical for this age just wasn’t there. One of the plans in my mind was to have a place that just felt safe to calm down or reduce stress for a bit.

Last year parent of one of my students donated a beanbag chair, I purchased a “support teddy bear” from Build a Bear, invested in some fiction and non fiction books on feelings, mindfulness, and yoga, and added a few more stuffed squishmallows that went along with my classroom space theme. It was nice and the students used that area often.

This year I took it a little further.

I still have the beanbag chair, floor cushions, books, teddy bear and squishmallows. You can’t see it but off to the right there is a table lamp and plant to give it a more homey feel.

But I also added a few items on the middle shelf. There is a green container with some activity cards for mindful breathing techniques. (I’ve already had one student share it with another student. In the black wire basket, I placed a few stress balls, rubix cube, a waterfall sensory timer, a fidget spinner and a sensory jar with water and glitter for shaking. There is also a purple container that matches the green one that holds a notebook for drawing and some markers.

My students love it, and it has come in handy on a few occasions. If you are a teacher, I highly recommend a spot that your students can escape to even for a few minutes to decompress and relax!