This month, our social skills theme is Identifying and Understanding Feelings, which is a great topic for the month of December. We are fortunate at Midland to use the Zones of Regulation program year round to assist students in identifying and understanding how to handle their emotions. Four colors (blue, green, yellow, and red) are used for students to associate certain feelings. The class has been introduced to the word “detective” and it has been explained that we will be detectives discovering how to identify feelings in ourselves and others. Students are learning that all our feelings are important. To assist in exploring our feelings we use some of the students’ favorite books. One favorite book is Pete the Cat and His Magical Sunglasses, by Kimberly and James Dean. This story engages the children in exploring the feelings of Pete and some of his friends. As the characters feelings are explored students identify the color associated with each feeling. Students also investigated what each character did to handle their feelings. The class loves music, which is another great way to engage them in learning about their feelings. On You Tube, we play the Feelings Song by The Singing Walrus and another favorite is Zones of Regulation by Blackberry Jam Kids Music with Credence Rose.
Students also work on hands-on activities. Besides broadening their knowledge on feelings, they are developing fine motor skills and following one and/or two-step directions. One activity is a cut and paste where the students match a facial expression to the correct color. With another activity students are creating star ornaments with the four colors from the Zones of Regulations. Each star will have a facial expression in the center of it representing a corresponding emotion.
