Circle Time

In the last few weeks, we have started having circle time every morning.

It's a great time to check in to see how everyone is feeling!

When we listen to our classmates talk about their feelings, 

we are using our communication skills and our social skills. 

We know that it's our turn to share when the "wise owl" comes along!

When someone shares their feelings, everyone is caring and respectful. 

People share about things they are excited about, which zones they are in, 

what happened over the weekend, what's bothering them, and so on. 

Circle time is also a time to work together to solve problems.

  

We are discovering many different problem-solving strategies that we can use!

We hope you will all have an excellent week!

See you later alligator!

Self-Regulation

In grade 2, we have been inquiring about the different feelings we have. 

We realized that most of our feelings can be sorted into four "zones". 

When we are happy, calm, and ready to learn, we are in the green zone. 

When we start to get silly, distracted, upset, frustrated, or too excited, we are in the yellow zone. 

When we are angry, out of control, mean, or mad, we are in the red zone. 

When we feel sad, sick, tired or hurt, we are in the blue zone. 

When we notice we are not in the green zone, we need to stop and take a break. 

We choose a strategy to help us go back to the green zone so that we are ready to learn again. 

This is called self-regulating!

We can choose to hug a stuffy...

use a calming jar...

or go for a walk on the second floor. 

We always carry a sand timer to make sure we come back within five minutes. 

When we are learning, there are other strategies we can use to stay focused. 

When we would like to work or read quietly,
we choose to use these earmuffs which muffles out some of the sounds.

Don't worry; we can still hear the important instructions!

We can also use these "forcefields" to help us focus on what we are doing.

Happy self-regulating everyone!

*We are adapting a program called the Zones of Regulation which was developed by Leah Kuypers. 

If you would like to find out more about the program and self-regulation, please follow this link.