Teaching Sequence

15 minutes

Tune In: Watch the episode

20 minutes

Find Out: The Zones of Emotional Regulation

15 minutes

Take Action: Taking responsibility for our emotions

Tune In: Watch the episode

Step 1.

Begin by watching the Bluey episode Bad Mood.

Bluey 'Bad Mood - ClickView (https://clickv.ie/w/V5lx)

Bad mood synopsis: Bingo is playing Bad Mood with Dad, standing on his feet as Dad stomps around the house, controlling everything Bingo does and causing chaos. But how will Bluey get her to stop?

Step 2.

Reflect on the episode with children by using the following prompts

How did Bingo feel?
Why was the bad mood making Bingo do all those things?
How do bad moods make you feel?
What does a bad mood do to the people around you?
How do you get yourself out of feeling like you're in a bad mood?

Using questions that prompt 'I feel...' thoughts for children begins a journey of expressing their feelings and showing empathy towards others to develop social and emotional skills. 'I feel...' thoughts are often based on emotions from the heart. They are a great way to talk about feelings and create an opportunity for children to think about how others may feel in certain situations, fostering empathy.

For more evidence-based advice on developing oral language in children, click here.

Some notes on Social And Emotional Learning
Developing emotional intelligence is a life-long learning journey. Helping children recognise their own thoughts and feelings is essential to children growing into happy and healthy bigger kids and eventually adults.

There are a range of strategies that support children in developing the knowledge and skills to help them to manage their emotions and behaviours. A good place to start is to help children identify where their thoughts and feelings come from. Some useful ways of talking about thoughts and feelings with children could be:

Your brain is your thought-maker. Thoughts are quiet words or ideas and are like a picture in your brain.
Your heart is your feelings keeper. Feelings are the way we feel about something - they are the things that make us feel happy or sad, calm or angry.

Find Out: The Zones of Emotional Regulation

Preparation

Make a large copy of the Zones of Emotional Regulation chart to share with the children.

The Zones of Emotional Regulation use colours to represent different emotions, aiming to guide children towards the "green" zone where they feel calm and ready to learn. Encouraging children to identify strategies to return to the green zone fosters emotional regulation skills. Regular integration of social and emotional learning into activities, along with consistent support and modelling by caregivers, helps children develop healthy norms and interactions, ultimately enhancing their social understanding and ability to navigate the world positively.

Find out more about Social and Emotional Learning here.

Find four pieces of coloured fabric to create the zones (green, yellow, red and blue). Use different types of material; it doesn't matter if it has a print on it as long as the colour is clear.

Lay the four pieces of colour fabric on the floor, using the zones of regulation as your guide. Keep the colour pattern consistent with the zones of emotional regulation.

Step 1.

The brain is my thought maker, my heart is my feelings keeper.

Invite the children into the area with the four different coloured pieces of fabric on the floor. Gently share the children's interest in the fabric on the floor - don't explain what it is yet. Wait until everyone is settled and let them know they will discover what the fabric is for in a few moments.

Step 2.

Begin by asking children:

Have you ever thought about where your thoughts come from?
How does a thought happen?

A fantastic way to explain this is to share the idea that:

Your brain is your thought-maker. Thoughts are quiet words or ideas and are like pictures in your brain.

Step 3.

Explain to the children that we all have different types of thoughts all the time:

Sometimes our thoughts are good, happy and positive and they make you feel good. Other times our thoughts can be sad, or can make us feel cross, grumpy and even angry. We can also have thoughts that make you feel bored and tired, like you have run out of energy. Sometimes we can feel worried or scared, which can sometimes make us be a little silly.

We all have different thoughts all the time and they are connected to our feelings.

A good way to explain this is

Your heart is your feelings keeper. Feelings are the way we feel about something, they are the things that make us feel happy or sad, calm or angry.

Step 4.

Ask children to move onto the yellow piece of fabric and imagine being in the Yellow Zone by asking:

When you are in the Yellow Zone you feel like you are a little worried, a bit scared, a little bit silly, losing some control. The feeling in your body is that your engine is running too fast. You should take care or caution.

Can anyone think of a time they have been in the Yellow Zone? A time when they were scared or worried?

Step 5.

Allow children time to reflect on their personal experiences and respond. This provides a quick way to show the children that they are not alone in the feelings that they have. In fact, we all have different feelings and emotions all the time depending on what is going on around us.

What did you notice about yourself when you were in the Yellow Zone? What was your face showing? Can you show me a Yellow Zone face? What were your hands or the rest of your body doing? Can you show me? What did it feel like inside?

Encourage children to use their faces and body language to communicate what they are feeling in each zone

Step 6.

Now direct children to transition to the Green Zone, both emotionally and onto the green piece of fabric:

What do I need to do when I find myself in the Yellow Zone? I need to calm down, and find a quiet activity like reading or sensory tubs.

Grab out some of these items and have children feel them, and focus on them.

Step 7.

Lead children in exploring the Green Zone:

When you are in the Green Zone you feel like you are in a good mood, you are calm, comfortable, focused and happy. You are good to go… Your engine is ready.

Ask children: Can anyone think of a time they have been in the Green Zone? A time when they were happy and calm?

What did you notice about yourself when you were in the Green Zone? What was your face showing? Can you show me? What were your hands or the rest of your body doing? Can you show me? What did it feel like inside?

Step 8.

Invite children to now move to the red piece of fabric

Explain to them that when you are in the Red Zone you feel like you are grumpy, cross, angry and a little out of control.

The feeling in your body is bubbling.

Can anyone think of a time they have been in the Red Zone?

What did you notice about yourself when you were in the Red Zone? What was your face showing? Can you show me that face? What were your hands or the rest of your body doing? Can you show me? What did it feel like inside?

Step 9.

Lead children in returning to the Green Zone:

To get back to the Green Zone, you need to take time to calm your engine, stop and take a break. You can do mindful belly breaths - five long slow breaths all the way into your belly and all the way out. Belly breaths will help you return to the Green Zone.

Make sure children move back to the Green Zone.

Step 10.

Now invite children to move to the Blue Zone.

When you are in the Blue Zone you feel sad, tired, bored. The feeling in your body is like you have no energy, your body engine is running too slow. Sometimes we can go here when we need to rest. Sometimes we can go here when we need to rest.

Can anyone think of a time they have been in the Blue Zone?

What did you notice about yourself when you were in the Blue Zone? What was your face showing? Can you show me that face? What were your hands or the rest of your body doing? Can you show me? What did it feel like inside?

Step 11.

Lead children in returning to the Green Zone:

To get back to the Green Zone, we need to get our body moving. We need to re-energise and find something that sparks our interest - find a toy or a friend to regain my energy—try giving one of your friends a good hug now.

Take Action: Controlling our own emotions

When children are working on emotions, it is empowering to let them know that they are in charge. They may feel emotions coming, but they can do something about the feeling as it grows. They are taking responsibility for their feelings and emotions once they have identified them. Using the zones of emotional regulation as a tool can help children identify their emotions and then respond to these emotions. This can be used as a valuable emotional guide in early learning centres. In each of the zones, the focus is to identify the feeling or mood by using colours (red, green, blue or yellow) or words that describe the feeling (calm, angry, worried or tired), and providing emotional tools to help adjust the person's mood. Over time and with practice the children take responsibility by recognising feelings and taking action to manage their emotions.

Some notes on getting children to take responsibility for their emotions

Of course, there are feelings that we like to have more often than others, but all feelings are okay to experience. Even good such as feeling extremely excited (high in the yellow) can derail a child’s day by making it challenging to concentrate on a quiet task. There are also occasions when unpleasant feelings can be helpful. For example, mild frustration may help a child persevere to complete a challenging task, and some sadness is necessary to develop empathy.

However, it’s important for children to learn how to be the boss of their emotions, rather than responding emotionally to everything and derailing their day or missing important learning and experiences.

One way to do this is by following the RULE method.

Recognise: Get children to reflect on how they’re actually feeling. Our bodies often give us great clues, such as breathing, heart rate, and muscle tightness.
Understand: What happened that caused a child to feel this way? Identifying the things that impact our feelings, such as people, thoughts, and events, can help us both manage and anticipate our emotional responses. Determining the causes of positive feelings can help us consciously embrace those things more often.
Label: What word best describes how I am feeling? Emotional language is rich, diverse, and highly specific. Letting others, and ourselves, know exactly how we feel is helpful for addressing those feelings.
Express: At different times and in different contexts, some forms of expressing our emotions are more appropriate than others. Explaining to children the purpose behind some of your emotion management strategies helps them understand and provides them with models of coping. Educators with a range of regulation strategies to choose from are better able to manage the full range of emotions and to model these strategies for children and families.

Find out more about teaching emotional intelligence here.

Step 1.

Invite children to return to sitting on the floor around the coloured pieces of fabric. Explain you are going to practise regulating your emotions in some different situations. You could draw on the experiences the children have already volunteered earlier or use the suggestions below:

Imagine you have just made a wonderful drawing, but then you knock over a water bottle and the paper gets all wet and ruined. What colour zone would you be in?
Wait for the child to move to the piece of fabric they think would match the emotions they would be feeling.
Can you show me the face you would make? What would your body be doing or feeling?
Now, what is one of the ways you might get yourself back into the Green Zone?

Step 2.

Repeat with different scenarios such as:

You can’t find your favourite soft toy or book
You are starting your first day at a new school/kinder/early learning centre and you don’t know anyone
A thunderstorm is making spooky noises outside your window at night
You think there’s a monster under your bed
Someone accidentally pushed you over during outdoor playtime.

Remind children that they don't have to stay in one zone. They can change the way they are thinking and move between the zones by taking time and listening to themselves.

Possible Lines Of Development

Encourage the children to be mindful when they play and notice the feelings they experience. Different feelings will happen at different times of the day. If you find that your feelings are getting away, come back to the zone, sit and take time to rest and refocus before going back out to play.
Remind the children that your emotions change all day, every day, and you have the power to change them. It is their responsibility to work on their emotions and be mindful about the way they are feeling.
Prominently display the Zones of Emotional Regulation chart and refer to it whenever children are having a tough time, reminding them of how the strategies you've established for returning to the Green Zone.
Make several hats or crowns and invite children to colour them in according to the different colours in the zones. Children can wear these when they notice themselves in a particular zone and use them as an impetus for moving back into the Green Zone.

Responsibility - Zones of Emotion

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