The Thistle - An E-Newsletter of Scotch College, Perth, Western Australia

Kindy News

Our inquiry process throughout Autumn Term revolved around the transdisciplinary theme of 'How we express ourselves'. The central idea the Kindergarten boys were investigating was how their feelings help them to express and communicate their ideas. The 'Zones of Regulation' was introduced to help teach the boys how to recognise how they were feeling and what factors or triggers may have contributed or impacted these feelings. All the different ways we feel and associated states of awareness were categorised into four different coloured zones.

The Green Zone

Students in the green zone may be described as calm, happy, focused, or content. This is the optimal zone for learning and for being social. Being in the Green Zone shows control.

The Blue Zone

The Blue Zone is used to describe when one feels sad, tired, sick, or bored. This is when one's body and/or brain is moving slowly.

The Yellow Zone

Students may be experiencing stress, frustration, anxiety, excitement, silliness, nervousness, confusion and many more slightly elevated emotions when in the Yellow Zone.

The Red Zone

The Red Zone is used to describe very intense feelings. One may be experiencing anger, rage, explosive behaviour or panic when in the Red Zone and feel out of control.

Coloured zones were established within the Kindy classroom with various strategies and tools where the boys were encouraged to spend time to help them regulate their feelings and bodies, in order to get back to the “green zone” where they are ready to learn. The boys came to realise all the zone colours were okay and that there will be times when they are experiencing feelings in all different zones and then recognising how they can transition themselves between these. Ultimately, this awareness allowed the boys to begin to regulate their feelings and behaviour and then help their peers to do the same. Powerful stuff!

The Kindergarten boys are to be commended on the way they communicated and reflected upon how they were feeling at various times, which wasn’t always easy. This will be an ongoing investigation as we continually link our understandings into new inquiries.

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Mrs Medine Mazzuchelli
Kindergarten Teacher