Zones of An Elephant

 This week we put it all together. 

Zones of Regulation, Size of the Problem, and Role Playing

How did I do it? 

Day 1: We review the zones of regulation and the posters on the wall of the size of the problems.  Then I asked how does this all go together? I want my students to understand that we go through a ton of emotions throughout the day. My job is to help them see their emotions and help regulate them.  I show them all these ways to regulate them because there might be more than one way to do.  

For the remainder of the lesson, we pretend we are in a different zone and act out how to respond to them to get back into the green zone. 

Day 2: I will go more into depth about "Mindful Breathing" later in my blogs because we are going to be taking a training on it.  I know very little about it, but what I know now is that it is a time to take a break, focus on your breathing, take deep breaths to get back on track.  Our principal uses it every morning with our students, so I wanted to incorporate that with my students.  I use mindful breathing when my students come in from recess.  I use "crab hands". You open your hands when you breathe in and close them when you breathe out.  We take 4 big deep breaths and then move onto the next thing we are going to do. 

Day 3: You know it: ROLE PLAY!! You kid aren't going to learn by just telling them! Have them DO IT! Ideas of role playing:

1. Feeling hungry right before lunch.

2. Feeling very wiggly during math.

3. In the red zone. 

4. Getting side tracked while Mrs. Steffen is teaching.

5. Feeling really excited about what you played at recess. 

6. Coming to school sleepy.