Ron Southern Kindergarten: First Week of Kindergarten

Welcome to Kindergarten

What a wonderful and busy few weeks we have had so far in kindergarten at Ron Southern School. We are learning to play and work together through exploration in fun and engaging learning based play centres such as literacy, numeracy, art exploration, fine motor, dress up and building centres.

There has been a large focus on learning what it means to be part of a group as well as our personal and social responsibilities in all our new classrooms including the learning commons, music room, gym and our buddy classrooms! During these experiences we are engaging in conversations about how to make new friends and ways to interact with our peers in a positive way, especially when conflicts arise.

This week we have also been learning about self-regulation and ways to better understand our feelings, emotions and behaviours through the Zones of Regulation. Read below to find out how these zones work and ways to incorporate them into our daily life both school and at home.

The Zones of Regulation

The Zones of Regulation help students gain skills to consciously regulate their emotions and behaviours, which in turn leads to increased control and problem solving abilities. Students learn to recognize when they are in different emotional states called “zones,” with each of the four zones represented by a different color.

Students learn how to use strategies or tools to stay in a zone or move from one to another. Students explore calming techniques, cognitive strategies, and sensory supports so they will have a toolbox of methods to use to move between zones. To deepen students’ understanding of how to self-regulate, students learn skills such as how to read others’ facial expressions and recognize a broader range of emotions, perspective about how others see and react to their behavior, insight into events that trigger their less regulated states, and when and how to use tools and problem solving skills.

The zones of regulation that aid in self-regulation can be broken down into four categories that include:

Blue Zone: sad/tired/sick/bored

Green Zone: happy/calm/ready to learn/okay

Yellow Zone: frustrated/silly or wiggly/hyper/upset

Red Zone: mad/angry/yelling/hitting

There are several different tools and techniques that are used in the four zones of regulation that help students self-regulate their emotions. These tools include taking a break (ie. going to a calming space such as the tent/book nook, going for a walk, getting a drink of water, talking to an adult, writing about or drawing a picture of their feelings, having a snack, counting to 10, doing stretches, listening to music etc.).

For example, when students are approaching the red zone they are feeling angry, upset or frustrated. The best tool for the red zone is to allow students to have a “cool down” break where they can walk away and choose something that is soothing and calming or will help them release and better understand what is making them upset or angry.

Students are learning that once they are approaching the blue or red zone, they are encouraged to communicate to the teacher, or adult they are with know that they need to take a break and find a place to 'cool down'. Once students have identified their zone they are able to understand their feelings and choose a tool or strategy to help get back to the green zone.