This year our district will sponsor a calming corner for students. I would like to incorporate 123 and GO into this corner. I looked back at some of the SEL posted in the past, I am looking for some individual lessons that I can print and students can do them on their own. @Audra_Selkowitz @Tina_Dietrich @Danielle_McCoy Lets work together to come up with some amazing lessons.
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I love this idea too. I have a simple idea you could build from.
Emotion Mapping with GO Robots
Objective: To help students identify and map their feelings.
Instructions:
- Students choose a robot and a marker color that corresponds with how theyâre feeling.
- On the sheet of paper, zones are marked as âHappyâ, âSadâ, âTiredâ, etc.
- Students code their GO Robot to move to the zone that matches their current emotion.
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@Desiree_White-Price I LOVE this idea so very very much! And I have a lot of thoughts 
I had a Calm Down Corner in my classroom for years, and it was a really, really helpful space and strategy that my students learned to take ownership of and use with growing independence throughout the year.
To start with, a couple of tips for building a successful calm down space that I learned over the years:
- It doesnât necessarily matter what I want in the space, it matters what makes sense to my students. We can create aesthetically pleasing spaces with all kinds of calming activities, but if the students donât connect to the place or materials, it is really hard for a calm down corner to have the desired effect.
- To that end, build the space with your students! Talk about things that help them feel calm, strategies they use when they have strong emotions, how calming down is a skill they can learn, and just like they have things that help them learn other skills (like writing and reading and math) there are going to be things that help them learn this skill. Plus, the more students are involved in the process, the more understanding they will have that this space is FOR THEM.
- In order to do any of this, set the stage for what this space is and how it will be used. Building a calm down space and having a âta-da!â moment with students wonât get you too far if students donât have the foundation for what this is. Spend time talking about things like what it means to be calm, what it looks like, sounds like, feels like when we are calm, the importance of calming down when weâre having any kind of big emotion (positive or negative) and how regulating that can help us be better friends and students. Laying the foundation is critical to students being able to use a calm down space effectively - they canât see it as a punishment, itâs got to be a positive!
Ok, so now how can VEX help with all of that?
Before bringing 123/GO artifacts into your space, do the SEL focused STEM Labs with your students!
Role Play Robot has students test out the âActâ Coder cards to see what robot behaviors happen for each emotion, then create their own emotion codes to code robot behaviors for different feelings.
How this helps with a calm down corner - This activity helps students make the connection between feeling words and their behavior. This connection is SUPER important - understanding how they behave when they feel an emotion, how that is similar/different to othersâ experience of that emotion, and how to communicate their emotions are important self-regulation steps that will be needed to use a calm down space effectively.
Calm Down Robot - now hereâs the STEM Lab that is literally designed for use with a Calm Down Corner! After Role Play Robot, this Lab takes that feeling-behavior connection to the next level, where students code the robot to act out calming down behaviors, creating their own âCalm Down Codesâ.
How this helps with a calm down corner - To do this Lab, students need to identify calming behaviors, and then think about how the robot can act them out. For instance, take 3 deep breaths could be indicated with drives, waits, and colors. This also gives students a vehicle to explore what helps them vs. what helps a friend, and the ways they are similar/different. They also act out the calming behaviors alongside the robot, to gain practice with them.
The artifacts and projects from both of these Labs can be used in a Calm Down Space!
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Keeping students calm down codes in your space, gives them something tangible to do with the robot and with themselves in the space, so the activity gives them a brain break, but is focused on something related to them calming down.
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Students can create additional emotion codes in the Calm Down Corner to help communicate how they feel and why. This will help build their emotional vocabulary, which will give you more tools to use to build their emotional understanding and awareness.
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Comparing and contrasting how their feeling/behavior connection compare to those of the codes in the space is also a really great activity for helping students to recognize and develop their understanding of their own emotional landscape.
While these Labs are written for 123, they can easily be used with VEX GO, and students can code the Code Base to act out different emotions or calm down codes.
To me, itâs important to do these Labs FIRST, before bringing the robots into independent student use for SEL, so that they have a foundational understanding of how they are connected, and then can use them in the ways you intend more successfully. Then in your âdebriefâ with a student after their Calm Down Corner time, you can use the robot in that discussion too.
I hope this is helpful! I will happily talk Calm Down Corners ANY TIME. (I still have materials from my classroomâs corner in my office right now!)
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Yes, I would love to talk. I really want to make the space meaningful for students. I will keep you posted on what I come up with. This post was super insightful.
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