As part of one of our Professional days, staff took time to look at The Zones of Regulation program. Some teachers were already using the program and language in their classroom with success. We decided to outline specific areas to use across all classes in order to have common language with the all the students in the school.
Recently, we talked about how the size of a problem relates to each zone. The children wrote a type of problem on a sticky note and then decided if it was a small, medium or big problem. This language is useful in the classroom when problems arise and reactions don't match the size of the problem.
With that said, we also talked about how some problems can provoke different reactions in people. One child said, "One night I saw a lightening bolt and it scared me." He decided this was a big problem and it put him in the red zone. For others, it wasn't as terrifying and therefore, we placed it in-between the yellow and red zones.
The over arching goal is to get back into the green zone. Future lessons will practice these skills, such as taking a break, deep breaths, etc.
