Time Outs!

I have been giving alot of thought to my approach to children in the classroom, who might be struggling in socializing with their peers. It has been my practice in the past to isolate them from the group to allow them some time to think about what they did wrong. But honestly, I don't think this helps,what are they learning? I believe that they need more practice instead in learning to socialize positively, so they can eventually become better at it.
I will be looking for extra activities for them to take part in, to foster these skills.Some ideas that I have come up with so far are: excusing each child from the circle to find their place at the table for lunch. Facilitating classroom cleanup before we begin preparing lunch.Greet the children as they come in the door to begin the day. Hopefully my list will grow.

I would like to begin introducing this new practice with a Grace and Courtesy Lesson. The children understand the concept so much better if they are SHOWN not TOLD about a new practice. We have a spot in our classroom called "The Peace Corner". The child is free to go there at any time to be by themselves. They may choose to be there for as long as they want. This is a good place to be if they are feeling sad, angry or even tired. If I see a child that appears to be frustrated, I say to them, "I can see you are getting frustrated, do you remember that there is a good place to go when you are feeling like that"? We will continue to use the Peace Corner for this purpose. But as a child needs to be reminded of proper social skills we will encourage more social interactions.