THE ZONES OF REGULATION

At Cambrian Heights Schoo students from Kindergarten to Grade 6 learn about the Zones of Regulation. A program that begins by helping us identify how we are feeling at any moment. By learning to recognize our feelings we can then begin to learn when we need a break, some help, or when a self-regulation strategy or tool might be helpful to us. In Kindergarten we began to discuss feelings by watching the video below, pausing it to pretend how we would move, sound, and talk if we were feeling afraid, angry, sad, happy, or disgusted!

MEETING OUR EMOTIONS

When we were done acting out different emotions the four colours that are used to represent the Zones of Regulation were introduced to the class. Instead of telling the class what each colour represented students were asked the following questions:

    -What feeling does red make you think of?

    -What feeling does blue make you think of? 

Ms. McCowan shared that the Red Zone reminded her of traffic lights. 

    -What does the red traffic light tell us? 

This analogy was then used to identify which of the two remaining zone colours told us we were good to go and ready to learn? In this way the children internalized the colours through real world connections that helped them easily identify the zone characters in the stories we read were in during Story time each day. 

We also learned that the yellow zone can be very helpful to us so that we can identify our feelings and take action before we end up in the red or blue zone. Now that we know about the zones we will learn to identify more of the different feelings we can have and what zone the belong to on Feelings Friday where we will continue to build our understanding of the Zones, as well as what we can do when we are having a hard day. 

TIDBITS & INFORMATION ITEMS

KINDERGARTEN BACKPACKS

A great tip for families, if you have not already done so, is to start to make it your child's responsibility to prepare their backpack for school or other outings with your family. This will help their confidence grow and prepare them for when they have additional personal items to care for in the Winter months. Here are a few tips we have shared with students at school:

• Your one small snack can go in a small front pocket for easy access
• Backpacks are easier to pack when they are on the floor, rather than on a hook or surface that is higher than your waist
• Load flat items at the back first (ie paper folders or books), then hard items (ie lunch kits and water bottles), and then finally soft items such as coats
• BONUS (Winter Prep): practice placing mittens inside of toques for safe keeping, either stuffing it into your boots or down the sleeve of your coat. Scarves can be stored in the same way so they don't get misplaced and are easy to find

INSIDE SHOES

If you have not already sent in a pair of inside shoes please feel free to do so. Since we have had some beautiful weather, we have not begun the routine of switching our shoes when we come into the school yet, but we will begin this important routine soon so that we are ready for winter. Please make sure your child's shoes are clearly marked with your child's name and that they are aware that they will be left at school and not returned home until the end of the school year. 

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Ask me to tell you about the coat box picture I am making at school using a picture of me on the very first day of classes.
2. What new centre was opened in the classroom this week? What do you want to build there when it is your turn to play there?
3. Read a story together and talk about the characters feelings? Did they change in the book? What were they feeling at the beginning/end? What Zone were they in? How do you know?