Hygge Case Study: “It feels like home”

“It feels like home”

A member of staff said this as she walked through my classroom and I answered, “That’s exactly how I want it to feel”.

I started my Hygge journey about 5 years ago when working in a nursery classroom as part of a primary school.

Over the years I have witnessed many different types of classrooms. When I eventually became a teacher, I knew exactly how I wanted my classroom…. calm, simple, cosy, and happy!

I started the beginning of the year by asking for family photographs to display in our classroom. The children loved to chat about the photos, and it was a talking point for a number of weeks.

I have always been interested in child development, reading, and researching about different theorists. As an Early Years department, we have implemented lots of different ideas from lots of different theorists and cherry picked the ones that we feel best fit our children.

I currently work in a forest school and so the outside environment is just as important as the inside environment. Hygge has found my heart and I now feel I know exactly what I want to do in regards to my classroom, my practise, my homelife and new role as EYFS lead.

“The classroom is the third teacher” is a phrase I have heard so many times and so I started with natural display boards using hessian. I noticed that the transition each morning was much calmer. This has now been implemented throughout the school.

Music is played whilst the children enter the classroom calmyand I introduced yoga and mindfulness as part of our daily routine.

Children sit in their key worker groups, and we light a candle each morning and talk about what we are thankful for, how we are feeling or listen to a story. This time enables the children to interact, take turns, listen to others, and learn new vocabulary.

Open ended resources were implemented, and I am passionate about the process over product and letting the children decide what they want to.

The continuous provision areas of my classroom have become much more holistic, and I have really thought about the natural aspect of the resources and the children’s interests. I really like thinking about the senses when thinking about enhancements for areas. This is lemon play dough with lemongrass and some other herbs for the children to explore.

I will soon be taking on a new role as EYFS lead and I am keen to promote all the amazing things I have learnt on my accreditation journey so far. I say so far because there is so much more I want to do, and I am sure there is much more to learn.

I feel every cohort of children is different and the children evolve throughout the year, as does the classroom and the environment.

Currently we use individual floor books and although I feel these are lovely for parents, they are very time consuming. I will be looking at the way we keep evidence and how purposeful our assessment procedures are currently.

The last two years have proved to be the toughest yet in my education career. I have had a high number of SEND and children with severe behaviour disorders. I have encountered high levels of stress at certain times and what I have learnt throughout this process is that my passion to teach and my love of spending time with children is still prevalent. This course has empowered me to believe in myself. I have also been implementing Hygge at home, building in regular selfcare into my routine along with journaling, yoga, and exercise.

My next step is to complete “Be an Extraordinary leader” 😊

Thank you Kimberly!

by Emma R