Self Regulation and Calming Strategies

This fall our class has been talking a lot about emotions and ways to help ourselves feel more regulated when we are frustrated or upset. In Guidance students learn about the Zones of Regulation which put feelings into categories. If you are in the blue zone you may be tired, sick, sad, bored, disappointed, etc. If you are in the green zone you are calm, happy, content, etc. Feelings like silly, hyper, agitated, frustrated, annoyed can characterize the yellow zone, and the red zone is feeling angry or out of control. These zones are things you could talk to your children about at home as ways to help them characterize their feelings. We hope to be in the green zone most of the time but have spent time talking about what you can do to help self regulate when you are not in the green zone.

Our class has also spent time using a 5 point scale as another way to discuss our feelings. We have discussed that when we are at a level one or two we feel the calm, happy green zone feelings, if we are at a level 3 or 4 we are feeling the frustrated, annoyed, hyper yellow zone feelings, and if we are at a 5 (which would be rare) we are feeling the furious, out of control red zone feelings. This is just another way to help kids identify their feelings (we can ask them at which zone or level they are right now and help them come back to a calmer level/zone if needed). 

Our class read a book called When My Worries Get Too Big as we were learning about the 5 point scale and used it to start making a list of calming strategies for self regulation. We have been practicing these strategies most afternoons all together as a class when we are calm in hopes that the strategies become ingrained and can be used at times when kids might not feel calm. We have discussed that if there are times where we feel like we are in the yellow zone or at a level 3/4 we can draw on these calming strategies to help self regulate. Here are some photos of our 5 point scale, our list of strategies, and kids practicing the strategies all together. It has been very exciting to see students start to use these independently over the past couple of months! You can certainly ask them about these and practice using them at home too!