Calm Down Kit

After seeing a Calm Down Kit on pinterest, I decided to make my own, inspired from "The Autism Adventures of Room 83." This blog can be found here. See below my Calm Down Kit that I made! They are very easy to make with all my items either made, printed and laminated, or purchased from Dollarama!

Contents of my Calm Down Kit: 

1. Sparkle Bottle

2. Rubber Squeezies

3. My "5 Deep Breaths" sign

4. "When I'm Angry" and "When I'm Frustrated" sign

5. "What Would Help You Feel Better"

6. "How Do You Feel Today?"

7. Check In

8. Breathing Exercises

1. Sparkle Bottle

I love having this sparkle bottle in my Calm Down Kit. Kids can shake it and then take belly breaths and watch as they calm down, the sparkles calm down too! In our class we will be doing lots with the sparkle jar that I made to use as a whole class! See instructions for how to make a sparkle jar here.

You can explain to the students that when you shake the jar or bottle it represents your brain and all your thoughts when you are stressed or worked up. Do you think it's easy to think with thoughts spinning around in your head like that? Do you think it's easy to concentrate or relax? Definitely not. Students can really understand this when you explain it. When you shake the jar, start taking belly breaths to watch as you calm down, the sparkles in the jar also calm down! It's amazing to use this in your class.  Look at the difference in the bottles below!

Sparkle Bottle right after being shaken.

Sparkle bottle after about 15 seconds of being shaken.

2. Rubber Squeezies

See below the rubber squeezies I bought for my Calm Down Kit at Dollaram! They are great for kids who need to play with something in their hands to help calm them down. They squish around and are very fun to play with.

3. My "5 Deep Breaths Sign"

These are once again inspired from The Adventures of Room 83, however I did make them myself. I have velcro on the backs of the tokens and velcro on the card for #1-5. If you are with a child when they are taking belly breaths, each time they take a breath you can hand them a little token to velcro onto their sheet to get to 5 breaths. Otherwise, a child could simply take a breath and velcro it on themselves. 

4. "When I'm Angry" and "When I'm Frustrated Sign"

These signs are taken DIRECTLY from The Adventures of Room 83. I do not take any ownership for them. Find them here. These are great to talk to with kids to help explain to them their options for when they are angry or frustrated. 

5. "What Would Help You Feel Better"

6. "How Do You Feel Today?"

I made these signs, also inspired from The Autism Adventures of Room 83. I think this is a great way for kids to think about why they are worked up and what would help them to calm down. This helps their mind think when they are worked up! This is also a great way to communicate with children. Some children might not be able to successfully communicate how they feel or what they want, so these are great ideas to help with the thinking process!

  

7. Check In

 This is also a great way to "check in" with kids to see where they are at. They can move around the purple "I feel" symbol to move where they are so they can communicate with you how they feel! This is a great way to also talk about what would make them feel better, or what's wrong in the first place. This can be a great starting point to know where the child is at and to get a sense of what emotion they are feeling. This is taken DIRECTLY from The Adventures of Room 83. I do not take any ownership for them. Find them here.

8. Breathing Exercises 

These exercises were found on "Move With Me - Action Adventures." Click the link here to see. These are great techniques to teach kids to help calm down through their breathing!

This is a photo of the Cozy Corner we use in our classroom!
The kids learn that they can go to this space ANYTIME to self regulate.