Getting Back to the
Green Zone

Poppy and Stella's home learning tips.....

Zones of Regulation

During remote-learning have you heard your children saying," Mum you are in the Red Zone. I think you need some time out!" "Dad, you are in the blue zone today, let's go for a walk".

It's time to get back to the Green Zone!

The Year 1&2 students have undertaken a program called Zones of Regulation.

The Zones of Regulation is a curriculum geared toward helping students gain skills in consciously regulating their actions, which in turn leads to increased control and problem solving abilities.

The Zones of Regulation uses four colors to help children self-identify how they’re feeling and categorize it based on color. It also helps children better understand their emotions, sensory needs, and thinking patterns. They learn different strategies to help them cope and manage their emotions based on which color zone they’re in.

Additionally, the Zones of Regulation helps kids recognize their own triggers, learn to read facial expressions, develop problem-solving skills, and become more attuned to how their actions affect other people (Kuypers, L.M, 2011)

The Green Zone

The green zone is used to describe when you’re in a calm state of alertness.

Being in the green zone means you are calm, focused, happy, or ready to learn. This is predominantly the state you want your child to be in.

It’s also the state most needed in the classroom in order to learn.

The Yellow Zone

The yellow zone describes when you have a heightened sense of alertness. This isn’t always a bad thing, and you typically still have some control when you’re in the yellow zone.

Being in the yellow means you may feel frustrated, anxious or nervous. But, it could also mean you’re feeling excited, silly, or hyper – which is okay in the right situations.

The Red Zone

The red zone describes an extremely heightened state of intense emotions. When a person reaches the red zone, they’re no longer able to control their emotions or reactions.

This is the zone kids are in during meltdowns.

Being in the red zone means you’re feeling anger, rage, terror, or complete devastation and feel out of control.

The Blue Zone

The blue zone, on the other hand, is used when a person is feeling low states of alertness or arousal.

When you’re in the blue zone you may be feeling down – sad, sick, tired, or bored. You’re still in control, as you are in the yellow zone, but with low energy emotions

Home Learning Masters...

Stella and Poppy Dare worked with their mum Kristen to create a Zones of Regulation Display.

What they enjoyed about making the posters?

Choosing the emojis for the posters
Having my sister Poppy help me choose avatars for our family members.

How are you going to use your posters at home?

We have created an avatar for each family member and they are:

Poppy – Giraffee
Dad – dragon
Mum – fox
Stella – white bunny
Phoebe – cat

We are going to put the posters on the wall and then we place our avatar on the zone we are in. This is going to help our family as everyone will know what zone we are in and how we are feeling. It will help the family to know what they can do to help each other move in and out of the different zones.

Brilliant work Stella and Poppy. I think we could use a system like that in the school staff room. Congratulations!

Happy Fathers' Day

To all of our wonderful Dads, Pops, Grandpas, Step Dads and Father Figures we thank you for your love and support. We hope that you enjoy breakfast in bed and some family time on Sunday

You are so appreciated.

A Pot of Gold

Last week I wrote about Rainbows as a symbol of hope in many cultures, prompted by the spectacular rainbow that was captured over Great Ryrie in all it's glory. Today Audrey and Felix found the end of the rainbow at my office door but er are still searching for the pot of gold.