As we work to establish a caring and safe classroom community, we have been spending a lot of time talking about what it means to be part of bigger group and the importance of treating our classmates the way we would want to be treated, with good intentions and kindness.  For young children a critical first step in treating others with respect is developing an awareness of their own feelings and emotions.   In the first week of school, our guidance counselor Katie Babic introduced the class to the "Zones of Regulation" and we have spent lots of time revisiting this topic in the subsequent weeks.

The Zones of Regulation is a conceptual framework used to teach kids self regulation and self control by categorizing feelings and emotions into four colored zones.  Green is optimum.  People in the green zone might be feeling happy, calm, or focused.  Blue is running slow - perhaps tired, bored, or sick.  Yellow is used to describe a heightened state of alertness and represents caution.  Someone in the yellow zone might be frustrated, overwhelmed, worried, anxious, or excited.  Finally, the red zone is for extreme emotions and feeling out of control.  Some feelings that correspond with this zone are terrified, angry, or completely overwhelmed. 

To practice identifying different zones, we read the books "The Way I Feel" by Janan Cain and "On Monday When It Rained..." by Cheryl Kachenmeister.  Both books describe a range of feelings a person might experience in the course of a day, emphasizing that all people, even adults, cycle through variations emotions every day.  As we read the page of these books we talked about environments where the given emotion would be expected.  For example silly, excited and in the yellow zone is expected on the playground, but not when we are walking quietly in the hall.  We have also spent time talking about strategies for managing emotions and impulses.  Some of these include taking deep breaths, watching a drip toy, going for a walk, getting a drink of water, and talking to an adult.  We have also explored the zones through picture books.  As I read I often ask what zone a particular character is in at a given moment in the story, as well as strategies they might use to manage their feelings.  The Elephant and Piggy books by Mo Willems are particularly good at portraying the wide range of emotions that can be experienced in a short period of time. 

We have also been spending time talking about filling people's buckets after reading the book "Have You Filled a Bucket Today" by Carol McCloud.  This book talks about the rewards of treating other people with kindness.  When you fill someone else's bucket your own bucket fills as well.  We have been working on filling a class bucket by reporting the kind acts of classmates and sticking colorful stars onto our paper bucket.  We will decide on a class celebration once the bucket is full.