In this episode, we discuss cozy corners and their helpful uses in the classroom and at home with Caroline Hiskey and Grace Lady from Vanderbilt University.
More About Our Guests
Caroline Hiskey is a graduate student in Early Childhood Special Education at Vanderbilt University. She has 10 years of experience teaching and coaching in Headstart, Pre-K, and Kindergarten settings. Caroline is interested in supporting social-emotional and language development in early childhood spaces in culturally responsive ways.
Grace Lady is currently a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University studying early childhood special education. She is interested in training teachers to support social-emotional learning and manage challenging behavior in culturally and linguistically responsive ways. Grace previously earned her Master’s from Vanderbilt in child development and taught in a mixed-age preschool classroom in Texas before returning to Tennessee to pursue research.
Podcast
Transcript
Natalie Danner: Welcome to the Illinois Early Learning Podcast. Today, we are talking about cozy corners in the classroom. We are joined today by Caroline Hiskey and Grace Lady. Welcome, Caroline and Grace!
Grace Lady: Hello! Glad to be here.
Caroline Hiskey: Hi!
Natalie Danner: Great, so first let me introduce Caroline Hiskey. Caroline is a graduate student in Early Childhood Special Education at Vanderbilt University. She has 10 years of experience teaching and coaching in Head Start, pre-K, and kindergarten settings. Caroline is interested in supporting social, emotional, and language development in early childhood spaces in culturally responsive ways. And with us today, we also have Grace Lady. Grace is currently a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University studying Early Childhood Special Education. She’s interested in training teachers to support social-emotional learning and to manage challenging behavior in culturally and linguistically responsive ways. Grace previously earned her master’s from Vanderbilt in Child Development and taught in a mixed-age preschool classroom in Texas before returning to Tennessee to pursue research. I’m so happy to have you both here today! So, let’s begin. All right, Grace, I’ll start with you. What is a Cozy Corner? And what age group are Cozy Corners typically used with?
Grace Lady: Yeah, so a Cozy Corner, or you might have heard it referred to as a “calm down corner,” or a “safe place,” there’s a lot of different names that I’ve heard now. But it’s just an area in a classroom, or really any other setting that’s dedicated to emotional literacy and emotional regulation. It’s just kind of a dedicated space for being able to recognize and regulate those big emotions for young children. They’re often used with young children, we most often see them in pre-K and kindergarten classrooms, but they can be used with younger and older students and children. And they have places in other settings, too, like homes, clinics, anywhere a child might be, and they might have a big emotion, you can think about what a Cozy Corner might look like.
Natalie Danner: For age groups, I’ve noticed that it’s pretty common to have a Cozy Corner in a preschool classroom, but are there other age groups that this really works well with?
Grace Lady: Yes, definitely. We know that social-emotional learning starts very young, right? As early as infancy, we’re already starting to expose children to emotional literacy, helping them co-regulate, and so even as young as toddler classrooms, having spaces where you focus on those skills and help children regulate their emotions is a great place and time to start exposing them to that. And then, you know, we don’t stop having big emotions after we turn five, right? So, kindergarten classrooms, you know, lower elementary are still great spaces to have those Cozy Corners, because children are still learning how to use those skills, they’re still getting them down pat. I know that we all probably have experience with children who are older than four or five years old and still have big emotions, right? So, there are definitely ways to incorporate them in, with different age groups.
Natalie Danner: Great. When we’re talking about design elements, are there any design elements that a teacher should consider when they’re creating a Cozy Corner?
Grace Lady: Yes, so I think a lot of times when, for any of us that have some exposure to Cozy Corners or have seen them, we’re often thinking about those physical materials that are in a Cozy Corner, right? And one thing that we’ve had a lot of discussions about recently is really thinking intentionally about your decisions about what skills you want children to be learning and practicing when they’re there, and using that to guide the materials you select, or the way you design your Cozy Corner. So, thinking about why you’re including materials, how you expect them to be used, we recommend thinking about things like, skills like emotion identification, is one set of skills, right? Being able to recognize and name your emotions and how you’re feeling, part of that emotional literacy piece. And so, with that skill, maybe you have a poster of face visuals with labels, and children can point and pick out how they’re feeling. Maybe there’s a sentence strip poster where it says, I feel <blank>, and they can select the emotion or feeling that they have. Maybe there’s a mirror, so they can match how they feel, with other visuals of faces. Maybe there’s books to read that help them identify how they’re feeling. So, all of those are part of that kind of emotion identification piece. Maybe that’s a skill you really want your children to be getting experience with. Another one is emotion regulation. So, rather than just recognizing how you’re feeling, being able to manage those feelings and behaviors. We see this all the time, kind of like different breathing practices. Maybe there’s a poster of a birthday cake and a flower, and you blow, practice blowing out the candles on the cake and smelling the flower. Maybe there’s a poster with visual strategies, different ways they can do breathing. I feel like I see so many cool, different, breathing, calm-down exercises now that young children are practicing in classrooms, in large group and small group settings, and so maybe you have a poster of those different options for children to pick from. You can also have different strategies, right? You can, for anyone familiar with the pyramid model and Tucker Turtle, maybe you have Tucker’s book about how to tuck and take some deep breaths before it comes back out, tackles this problem. But all of those kind of go into that emotion regulation bucket. So, we have emotion identification, regulation, and then also another set of skills or strategies that we like to recommend are, you know, thinking about children’s sensory needs. These are things where they might help a child de-escalate, might redirect them a little bit, distract them a little bit. And just kind of get down from the top of that, big emotional time, so you can get to that place of identifying how we’re feeling, really engaging in a regulation strategy. And so, these are things that I think people often think about the most with a Cozy Corner space, are things like stress balls, pop-its, stuffed animals that a child might squeeze or cuddle, different sensory tubes that have, like, glitter and water in them that you can watch. But I’ve seen really creative things, too, like resistance bands that children can pull apart and stretch. Or those, kind of, there’s these sensory tiles that move when you stomp on them. I’ve seen paper or other kind of like cardboard or materials children can tear. So, kind of redirecting some of that energy, especially for things like really big angry moments or frustrated moments and meeting those sensory needs so that we can do the other work of emotional literacy regulation as well. So, we like to think about all of those pieces. And then also think about, there’s one more thing, individualization, right? So, these spaces are great for all children, but we always know that in a classroom, we’re gonna have some kids who probably need a little bit of extra support, or have slightly different needs than the majority, and so thinking about, you know, can everyone access this space with their linguistic repertoire, right? Do we have everything in the languages that children might speak? Is it responsive to all of the ability needs in the classroom? If there’s a child with a wheelchair, is there a way for them to enter the space that’s comfortable? All kinds of things that you can consider, when you think about just the characteristics of your children, and what’s going to make them feel most comfortable there. It can also be as little as, you know, individualizing the visuals to have favorite characters that they love, or incorporate songs or dances that they really love. So, as a teacher, you know your kids best, right? You know the things that make them smile and really encourage them and motivate them. And so, thinking about those things and how you can incorporate them in that space to make them feel most comfortable.
Natalie Danner: Thank you for painting a very detailed picture of what a Cozy Corner can look like. I can see it in my mind’s eye right now. And thanks also for giving a little shout out to the Pyramid Model, which I think has a lot of overlap with our Cozy Corner topic today. If there’s anyone listening right now who wants to learn more about the Pyramid Model, you can go back in time to an episode that we did last year on the Pyramid Model, and all about what it is, and how you can use it in the Early Childhood classroom. So, I want to turn to you now, Caroline. Once a Cozy Corner is created, how might an educator teach children how to use it?
Caroline Hiskey: Yeah, so just like any routine or new material that’s introduced in the classroom, specific instruction with clear modeling, opportunities for children to practice with teacher support are two things that are needed when you’re teaching children how to use the Cozy Corner. So, educators can introduce the Cozy Corner, model the steps for using the Cozy Corner, and then slowly roll out those different materials and tools as children are getting practice with each one. So, three routines to think about: first are when to go to the Cozy Corner, what to do when you get to the Cozy Corner, and then how to return to class activities. So, thinking about the expectations and steps for each of those routines, and then taking time to roll those out to children, is really essential in kind of laying that strong foundation for using the Cozy Corner effectively. Small groups and free choice times are great opportunities for supporting children with practicing these steps of using the Cozy Corner and learning about the different materials, while they’re feeling calm, and that’s a really important foundation to set before children are able to use the Cozy Corner when they’re having those big feelings of feeling sad or upset or frustrated. So, really making sure that they get lots of opportunities to practice in fun, engaging, calm ways. Puppets, favorite book characters, role-playing with co-teachers or other children are really fun ways to help make these lessons stick, and make this a really positive space that children are wanting to go to. Like Grace said, some children are going to need additional practice and additional supports, and this can include things like personalized visual schedules, and checklists of the steps to follow for those different parts of the Cozy Corner routines. Having modified choice boards with just a few preferred strategies can be really helpful, if you start to have a lot of materials available. And then individualized feeling photos, so having maybe the child take pictures of themselves showing different feelings, and having a sentence stem that they can use their own feeling photos to name what their feeling might be. And then for our multilingual learners, or for AAC users, it’s really important to ensure that you have those key phrases and vocabulary translated and input on AAC devices so that the Cozy Corner and the materials are accessible to everybody. The last big piece I’ll say on teaching how to use the Cozy Corner is that emotional literacy and regulation skills take time to learn, and children need intentional support to practice before they’re going to be able to use these skills in the Cozy Corner independently. So, co-regulation, or that process of modeling calm behavior, offering responsive calming strategies alongside the child to promote that, emotional regulation, will be necessary supports for children as they learn to use the Cozy Corner effectively. And again, for some children, that’s gonna take longer than others, or they might need different ways to practice, or different materials and scaffolds to be able to use that effectively.
Natalie Danner: Great points. Now, sometimes, unfortunately, we hear that Cozy Corners are mistaken for timeout areas. Caroline, when’s it a sign that Cozy Corners are being misused? And how can educators really prevent their misuse?
Caroline Hiskey: I think the key piece of a Cozy Corner is choice. So, when children are being sent to the Cozy Corner, or when it is being used as a consequence, then it can become a place with a negative association for children, and it can send the message that a behavior or a feeling is wrong, and result in children in viewing the Cozy Corner as a place where they don’t want to go. Emotional regulation, like we’ve said, is a difficult skill that takes time to develop, and we see this even with adults. And feeling safe and comfortable is part of how Cozy Corners can work to help children learn how to regulate, and this can only happen when they’re positive spaces. So, by always offering children the choice to use the Cozy Corner, making sure that it’s an invitation, speaking about emotions in really affirming ways, and modeling and offering intentional support as children continue to develop those emotional literacy and regulation skills, are three ways that educators can really ensure that Cozy Corners are positive and supportive environments for children, and not those, time-out spaces.
Natalie Danner: Thank you so much for those points. Now, I heard that both of you have some unique ideas about creating mobile Cozy Corners. Yes, I said mobile Cozy Corners. I had never heard of this before. So, Grace, what is this, and how might a mobile Cozy Corner be used?
Grace Lady: So, to Caroline’s point, one of the reasons we started thinking about things like mobile Cozy Corners, was because sometimes you have children in the classroom, or other settings, too, who don’t want to leave the activity or the space they’re in to go to the Cozy Corner, and that can be for a lot of reasons. Sometimes it’s, as Caroline mentioned, they’ve had a negative previous experience there and think it’s a bad place to go. When I was in the classroom, I had a student who absolutely hated leaving his play or his center to go to a Cozy Corner space. And making that demand just escalated his behavior, and how he was feeling. And so, bringing supports to the child, instead of the child making the child go to where the supports are, felt like a really natural solution to us. And so, thinking about making a mobile or to-go Cozy Corner, maybe it’s a caddy, a small basket, a tub, that has some of those key, calming materials, maybe a choice board, a feelings poster, that can go to wherever the child is. Maybe it even leaves the classroom, maybe it comes with you in the hallway if you know that there are spaces outside of your classroom that you often have big emotions and big feelings. And it just gives another way for children to access those materials in a way that feels most comfortable to them. And without making that space negative and making it somewhere that children feel like they have to go in order to regulate their emotions. You can get even more creative with this. Maybe you make it a classroom job, and you have someone who’s the feelings helper, and if they notice a friend who’s feeling upset, maybe they help bring the materials to them, or if you have a child who frequently needs those materials, over time, maybe you teach them to access the mobile Cozy Corner on their own, that they know that they don’t have to go to just this one space in the classroom, but that they can move some materials to themselves as well.
Natalie Danner: So, Caroline, how might families be involved in creating and using these Cozy Corners?
Caroline Hiskey: Families are such important partners in supporting social-emotional development, and I think that you can be really creative in collaborating with families throughout the entire process. So, starting with the planning process can help teachers ensure that your Cozy Corner space is set up with tools and visuals that reflect families’ strategies, languages, and the families themselves. And you can use surveys, you can use emails or texts, you can have a family information board or space in your classroom or hallway where families can either share ideas or ask questions about the Cozy Corner setup. Informal conversations are also great ways to get to know families’ preferences. It can be also really powerful to collaborate and partner with families when you have individual children that need additional support. So a few strategies that have been really effective for us and with teachers we’ve worked with have been, being able to bring in family photos, or handwritten feel-better messages, or feel-better drawings. That can help children who are navigating, maybe goodbyes are feeling really hard in the mornings, or maybe they’re missing family throughout the day. So having those family photos that you print out and have stored safely in the Cozy Corner or a “Feel Better” message book, can be a really helpful way to help that child regulate. Also having families help to translate those key phrases, for our multilingual learners is really helpful. And you can even get high-tech and have them record themselves, saying those phrases so that children can hear their families’ voices when they are using the Cozy Corner as a way to regulate. So those are some ways that families can help with that planning process. I think another fun way to get families involved is planning opportunities to kind of build that classroom community around cozy spaces and social-emotional skills, so having events or opportunities for families to come in and create their own cozy spaces. They can make their own mobile Cozy Corner boxes, like Grace talked about, that they can have for home, or car rides, or bringing out in the community. And this can be during drop-off, this could be during free choice time, it doesn’t have to be, you know, a set time. You can just have those materials available for families to come in and craft. Or you can have a whole class event, that works, with family schedules, where they can come and create Cozy Corner home boxes and share strategies with each other, or create sensory tools together, and that can be a really fun way to make social-emotional learning, just a nice foundational part of your community. And having those similar tools at home and at school can be really powerful in helping children in developing and practicing those social-emotional skills with the people and the places that are most meaningful to them. So again, just making social-emotional skills a part of your regular check-in conversations with families, whether that’s on an app, sharing photos of children using the Cozy Corner successfully, or celebrating children’s progress during those pick-up and drop-off conversations. And you can also get to know and ask about children’s progress at home, and see what families are seeing at home in the community, and how children are developing in these social-emotional areas.
Natalie Danner: Wonderful. As we wrap up our episode, Caroline, are there other resources on Cozy Corners that you might recommend to our listeners?
Caroline Hiskey: Our number one would be the Pyramid Model website, that I think we’ve mentioned a few times, but there’s just so many resources available, both for families and for educators, so there’s the “Backpack Series for Families,” which is one-pagers with information about different social-emotional skills or, different scenarios that families might, want to learn more about. Those are available in multiple languages. For both teachers and families, there’s printable social-emotional visuals, like emotions posters, different feelings faces, different calming strategies, and again, those are translated in multiple languages and available, in printable PDF forms. And then there’s a lot of recommendations on the website for other resources, other ways to use materials in unique ways, and ideas for mini-lessons or practice activities for children. I would say the local library is also a great place to go, getting recommendations for books that feature different social-emotional skills that reflect the identities and families that are in your classroom and in your community. And so, connecting with those local librarians can be really helpful ways to both bring books into your Cozy Corner, or for families to access. Our big recommendation is just to keep it simple. You don’t need a lot to get started. There’s many creative ways to use recycled materials to create sensory tools. Gatorade bottles are very sturdy, so those are nice options for some sensory bottles that you can flip up and down and have fun materials to watch inside. And then those visuals go a really long way in supporting children in learning how to use the Cozy Corner effectively and develop those emotional literacy and regulation skills. So, being really intentional about the visuals you choose, can make a big impact as well.
Natalie Danner: Thank you. We will add those resources to the podcast episode for everyone to find and explore. So many helpful tips have been shared about Cozy Quarters. I want to thank you both for being our guests on the Illinois Early Learning Podcast.
Caroline Hiskey: Thank you so much for having us!
Grace Lady: Thank you, it was great to chat!
Natalie Danner: And until next time, thank you and keep early learning at the forefront.
You have just heard a podcast by the Illinois Early Learning Project. For more information, please visit us at illinoisearlylearning.org where you can find evidence-based, reliable information on early care and education for parents, caregivers, and teachers of young children. Thanks for listening and for helping the children in your home, classroom, and community have a strong start in their early learning.
IEL Resources
- Resource List: Getting Started with the Pyramid Model