Zones of Regulation

The Zones of Regulation: Overview

This year the staff at LRES will be implementing The Zones of Regulation into our vocabulary and teaching. The Zones of Regulation, created by Leah Kuypers, is a complete social-emotional learning curriculum, created to teach children self-regulation and emotional control.

The Zone Colors

The Zones of Regulation uses four colors to help children self-identify how they’re feeling.

The Blue Zone

The blue zone is used when a person is feeling low states of alertness or arousal. When you’re in the blue zone you may be feeling down – sad, sick, tired, or bored. You’re still in control, as you are in the yellow zone, but with low energy emotions.

The Green Zone

Being in the green zone means you are calm, focused, happy, or ready to learn. This is predominantly the state you want your child to be in. It’s also the state most needed in the classroom in order to learn.

The Yellow Zone

The yellow zone describes when you have a heightened sense of alertness. This isn’t always a bad thing, and you typically still have some control when you’re in the yellow zone. Being in the yellow means you may feel frustrated, anxious or nervous. But, it could also mean you’re feeling excited, silly, or hyper – which is okay in the right situations.

The Red Zone

The red zone describes an extremely heightened state of intense emotions. When a person reaches the red zone, they’re no longer about to control their emotions or reactions. This is the zone kids are in during meltdowns. Being in the red zone means you’re feeling anger, rage, terror, or complete devastation and feel out of control.

Identifying Zones

The first step in teaching the Zones to your child is teaching your child the four zones and which emotions fall into each zone. It’s necessary that your child is able to accurately identify which emotions belong in which zone. This is the first step to their success.

You’ll achieve this through practicing with your child, talking about The Zones frequently and in different environments, and encouraging them to identify which zone they’re in.

  • Zones of Regulation Bingo – Use these free Zones bingo sheets but instead of playing a traditional Bingo game, try this: Get kids to use red, green. blue, and yellow bingo chips to mark which zone each of the feelings belongs to.

  • Books about Feelings – Read different books about feelings to your child and actively refer to which zone the feelings in the book belong to.

  • Match TV characters to Zones – When you’re watching TV with your child, ask them to identify which zone their favorite characters are in throughout the show. This is a great way to turn your child’s screen time into a learning experience and to show your child that the zones can be found everywhere.

  • Body Check Activity – Use this activity to help your child identify how they experience different emotions. Talk about which zone these different feelings are in.

  • Snuggle Buddies – These Snuggle Buddies are from Generation Mindful and they are perfect for children who are learning the Zones. The pocket in the back of the snuggle buddy has four colored emojis – blue, green, yellow, and red.

Zones of Regulation Apps

There are also two Zones of Regulation Apps available from the Amazon app store and Apple app store. They aren’t free, but they are low cost. Clink on either link below to explore.