Feb. 25, 2022 -- Add “self-regulation” to the list of things young children have to learn that usually includes reading, writing and arithmetic. At Boulevard, counselor Betsy Race and social worker Caryl Yoo are engaged in directly teaching students how to recognize and regulate their feelings using a social-emotional learning curriculum called The Zones of Regulation.

The Zones of Regulation include four color-coded characters who represent a multitude of emotions. The Green Zone is calm, happy, focused and ready to learn, while Blue is sad, tired, sick or bored. The Yellow Zone includes both “positive” emotions like excited or silly as well as “negative” emotions like frustrated, annoyed and worried.

“Life in the Red Zone can be the hardest,” Ms. Race told a class of 5th graders, “but it happens to all of us.” Red includes feeling angry, mean and out of control.  

Ms. Race and Ms. Yoo have recently begun meeting with every class once each week to introduce the zones, help students understand how to recognize which zone they’re in (and how they got there,) and ultimately how to develop strategies for dealing with the potential negative consequences of their feelings. While both teachers are hesitant to label any emotion as “bad,” they do acknowledge that some feelings are more likely than others to lead to negative behaviors such as hitting, yelling or lashing out.

Guiding children through the process of recognizing their own feelings and especially the specific events that triggered those feelings is a main part of this work. As Ms. Race says, “I teach and work on our feelings. Our feelings control everything we do.”

After their first introduction to the Zones, 5th grade students came away with three main findings: 1) all the zones are okay and expected at various times, 2) throughout the day, we change how we feel, moving in and out of zones, and 3) we may feel more than one zone at one time. In other words, feelings are complicated.

While Green is considered ideal, students will spend time over the coming months figuring out how to get themselves into the Green Zone even when it’s tough.

In Julie Walker’s 4th grade class, the students discuss their zones at their daily community meetings. “We’re a community,” says Ms. Walker who watched the movie Inside Out with her students. “When our moods change, they impact the mood of the entire classroom.”

Her students Londyn and Makayla both talked about how they pay attention to the feelings of those around them. “It’s hard not to see mouths [due to masks], but I look at eyebrows a lot,” said Londyn.

The curriculum and the tools and materials to support it were purchased using a combination of ESSR funds and grant money from Forest Hill Presbyterian Church. They hope to conduct parent sessions so entire families will understand and use the same strategies. Ms. Yoo has been introducing a Feeling Word of the Day over the morning announcements, making sure to include a diverse range of emotions, such as baffled, enchanted, irate or dejected.

This must be working because Ollie, a kindergartner in Sarah Robinson’s class, said he’s “learned that there’s more feelings than happy, sad and mad.”

His classmate Bailey has also internalized some of the early lessons. “Other kids are sometimes upset and I like people to be happy. I tell them it’s okay to feel sad because we all feel sad sometimes. Or I try to make them feel happy by telling them they can play with me.”

When asked which zone she was in on a recent Friday afternoon, she said Yellow because she was excited. “Because it’s about to be the weekend?” she was asked. “No!” she said, pointing to the class calendar. “Because on Monday, it’s our 100th day!”