Happy Birthday to Chase and Logan! We continued our study of dinosaurs this week. We played with the dinosaur skeletons moon sand and made dinosaur imprints in our rock playdough. We worked on some letter and number recognition and matching with two fun dinosaur inspired games. At the art table we painted our backgrounds for our dino's stomping at sunset board, and we used bingo markers to paint dinosaur eggs. Here we are enjoying the beautiful weather on Thursday! There is so much information that we could learn about dinosaurs...we could spend the rest of the year talking about them, and still not cover it all! Sadly, it is time for us to leave our extinct friends behind and start talking about how to take care of our Earth, so that we don't become extinct! We will leave you with one last not-so-scientific thought: if you took eleven 3 and 4 year olds and stood them on top of each other...they would be as tall as a Tyrannosaurus Rex! Important Classroom Update!!Next week we will be introducing the children to a new program that we will be using in our room, "What color is your chameleon?" which is based on Zones of Regulation. The goal of the program is to teach children about self-regulation and how to strengthen their self-regulation skills. Self-regulation can go by many names, such as self-control, self-management, and impulse control. Self-regulation is an essential skill in life, and in all learning environments. Children who can regulate their own emotion and attention are better ready to learn and thrive.
Zones of Regulation groups all the ways that children feel and act into four “Zones”. Blue Zone—when your body is running slowly, such as when you are tired, sick, sad or bored. Green Zone—when you are ready “good to go.” You feel happy, calm and focused. Yellow Zone—when you feel your engine running high, such as when you are frustrated, overwhelmed, silly, wiggly, excited, worried, anxious, or surprised. Red Zone—is when you have “flipped your lid.” You have extreme feelings such as terror, uncontrolled anger, aggression, or elation. The children will be learning about how their emotions and attention are connected, and then how to recognize emotions and attention in themselves and classmates. They learn that they move through their Zones throughout the day, and that they can improve their control over their Zones through practice. Zones of Regulation also teaches about tools for changing from one Zone to another, and encourages each child to build a repertoire of tools. Examples of tools that might be useful in zone movement are taking deep breaths, thinking about something that makes us happy, playing with a fidget toy. It is very important to know that none of the Zones are “bad” or “naughty.” All of the Zones are expected at one time or another. As the curriculum progresses, children will practice identifying what Zone is expected, and how to change Zones to better match their levels of alertness and emotions to their situation. If you use the Zones of Regulation vocabulary at home, please use neutral language. For example, “I notice you are in the Blue Zone. What is your plan for moving to the Green Zone?” Or “The Yellow Zone is great for the playground, but right now we are getting ready for dinner. Can you tell me what Zone would be a better match for getting ready for dinner?” “You are in the Red Zone. It is hard to solve problems when you are in the Red Zone. Do you need help getting calmer, so you can be in the Yellow or the Green Zone?”
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AuthorMrs. Cunnie, Ms. Monzingo and Ms. Ally are three teachers who think that learning provides us with a rainbow of possibilities! Come enter our wonderful world of exploration, learning and discovery! Archives
June 2021
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