Social Emotional Learning- Zones of Regulation

'Social Emotional Learning' seems to be the new buzz word/term going around in the education world. What I love about this is that it is encouraging a child-first perspective in everything we teach. We have always used this lens to view education, so it is wonderful to see it spreading!

"Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions."

One way we support this learning in our classroom is using the Zones of Regulation. We have worked through the 4 different Zones of Regulation over the past month. Our students are now feeling experts and have demonstrated a good understanding of which feelings associate with which Zone. We used books and videos to work through the different feelings. 

Our first week we spent time reading books and watching videos about all feelings in general. 

We then focused on a specific zone for the week, reading a variety of books and then talking through what it looks like, sounds like and feels like in that zone to end our week. We used Story Bots videos for introducing many of the feelings.

We put up all our signs in a way that helps students understand up and down regulation. When you are up-regulated, you need to down regulate to come back to the green zone. If you're down regulated, you need to up regulate back into the green zone. 

We then talked about ways we can up and down regulate to help ourselves get back to the green zone. Students loved using breath to help calm them, so we began recording the various breaths we can use. We are continuing to introduce new breaths they can use.

Students shared their learning through drawing, writing and using loose parts.

If you want to get these books for your classroom/personal library you can see my Amazon Storefront, I have a 'self-regulation/mindfulness' book list: https://www.amazon.ca/shop/wonderfullinquiry?listId=BTDC6FZWSO61  

*Please note I get a small fee for most purchases made*

Inquiry Time

Welcome to Grade 1 and 2 in Room 116! 

We have had a great first month in our class. Students are settling into routines and building friendships. Let us tell you a little about how we start our days. We start each day with ‘Inquiry Time’. During this time students are engaging in a variety of activities of their choice. We use this time for ‘work on writing’ as well as small group reading instruction. Our students make choices about where they want to engage in the classroom and then they select a writing format to share their thinking, creating and ideas. 

It seems we have a class of architects and engineers as building and creating seems to be a favourite activity. Here are some of their creations:

Soccer field 

Toronto

A library

Using base 10 blocks for a house

Canada's Wonderland

Students also explore a variety of math concepts during this ‘Inquiry Time’. They have done:

• geometry

Pattern Blocks (click for link to purchase)

Pentominoes (click for link to purchase)

• counting

• adding 

Exploring making 10 with Sum Blox

• patterning 

Keva Planks (click to purchase)

• measurement 

Measuring with Linking Cubes 

We believe that you can use play and open exploration to engage students and we need to remember that in Grade 1 and 2 they are still kids and deserve time to explore ideas through play. Providing this time allows students to:

• build social skills
• build curiosity and learn to ask questions
• learn to take responsibility for their learning
• use creative thinking
• express their ideas and knowledge in various ways (structures, loose part creations, writing, conversations, etc.)
• build problem-solving skills
• access various curriculum strands
• work on learning skills
• share explorations through various writing formats

Self-Portraits

We have been getting to know one another in Room 122 over the past few weeks. It has been wonderful to watch friendships growing and our learners settling into their new environment. We are working on building our knowledge of self and encouraging our learners to see their value and that they're unique. We created an opportunity for our learners to observe themselves and create art that represents them. We placed out various loose parts for them to create their own self-portrait.

The finished products:

We love that each is so unique, just like each learner in our room!