Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Yoga & other cool down strategies



Happy Tuesday! We officially made it past the first day back from winter break! We are always trying to find new ways to help our students calm down and de-escalate behaviors throughout the day. What are some ways that you help your students calm down during the day? 


1. One thing that we do is every afternoon after lunch and recess we do yoga! Our students LOVE yoga time! We started out using flash cards and having the students perform the pose that was on the card until I came across this AWESOME youtube channel.....



Jamie is the woman on the videos who tells yoga stories while engaging the students in different yoga poses and deep breathing. This site is totally worth taking a look at! 


2. We also have a calming caddy that we made with all types of tools that help our students. In this caddy we have: 
  • a small stuffed animal that the child can use to talk to if they prefer to talk out what they are feelings 
  • a notebook with markers, crayons, and pencils so the child can write down or draw how they are feeling and what can help make them feel better
  • a squishy ball to squeeze 
  • play-doh to play with and squish 


Some students ask us if they can add things to the calming caddy and we let them add things to the caddy as long as they are able to explain why it will help them calm down (lego men and batman toys usually don't get a pass into the calming caddy :) ) 

What are some strategies and items that you use in the classroom to help with behaviors? 


1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the yoga link! I am going to use it. I am so glad that I found your blog! Please stop over and visit mine too!! I am looking forward to following you!

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