In first grade, students are learning to identify their emotions and how to deal with them. Anger, frustration, anxiety are a few that are very hard for first graders to understand. To help students calm down, I have introduced the Relaxation Station. Students can ask to go there, as long as I am not in the middle of direct instruction. There are many items at the station (play-doh, legos, candles to smell, textured items, stress balls, etc.) The students really just wanted to explore today.
Rules for the Relaxation Station:
You can only use it, when you really need to calm down (not to get out of doing work, or to play).
One person at a time.
A limit of 3 minutes.
You cannot go while I am giving direct instruction or there is testing.
There is an interesting article, "How to Break Free From Life's Irritations". I am not sure this would work in three days for first graders, but it is very interesting.
Talk to your child about times they might need to use the relaxation station.
