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Pre-K educator Jenny Kist has students take out “Little Safe Place” boxes whenever they enter her Missouri classroom. The portable boxes, which are supposed to mirror and miniaturize the calming corners in the room, help children practice self-regulation and emotional identification. According to an article by Marlena Jackson-Retondo in Mind/Shift, the pencil boxes encourage children to work on breathing techniques, providing compassion and empathy toward others, and labeling and expressing emotions. “For Kist, a big part of providing safety and connection in her classroom comes from helping young learners identify and process their emotions, and ‘Little Safe Place’ boxes are a tool for that,” says Jackson-Retondo.
Through books, songs, and other classroom visuals and learning aids, children first learn about being happy, sad, angry, and scared. When students have a good grasp on the concepts, they are given their boxes. Each morning, children will take a card out of the boxes that identifies the four basic feelings, and children relate themselves to one of the feelings. Each child also has a family photo in their box. “Connections to home are just so helpful if they’re upset about anything,” says Kist.
According to a child psychologist interviewed by Jackson-Retondo, the first step in identifying emotions is learning to recognize facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language. “They also need to learn to label those context clues with language.” This should happen by the age of three or four years old. Additionally, she posits that the best thing educators can do is talk about emotions, even though they learn a lot about them through social interaction. This can be accomplished through labeling the emotions in TV shows, books, or even your own emotions. Children might participate in a game of "feeling charades," in which children and adults act out a feeling while other participants guess what is being expressed.
Children in Kist’s classroom also practice an assortment of breathing exercises. They can use the breathing cards in their boxes and choose ways to accomplish them. Sometimes they create their own exercises! For example, they swing their legs to kick imaginary balls, or pretend to smell a flower and blow out a candle. All activities require regular modeling from educators.
The boxes were very helpful when children were learning virtually; Jackson-Retondo wanted to find a portable “and accessible version of the safe space corner for each student.” Since making them a part of the classroom structure, children choose to open their boxes when they are in moments of dysregulation, or when children control or regulate their emotional responses.
Click here to learn more about “Little Safe Place” boxes.
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