Dear Families, 

Emotions can be more easily understood using the visual of the Zones of Regulation.

The Zones of Regulation curriculum teaches students how to determine what part of their brain they are in. When you are in your Thinking Brain, you are in the Green Zone. You feel happy, calm, focused and ready. If you’ve seen the movie Inside Out, this is essentially the time you would have “Joy” in control. You are able to access your prefrontal cortex allowing you to think, control your other emotions and make appropriate choices. 

When you “Flip your Lid” and get stuck in your brainstem, you only have access to your emotions. In this emotional brain, you are reacting solely based on the emotions you are feeling. These emotions comprise the 4 other zones.
The Blue Zone of “Sadness”
-feelings of being tired, sick, sad, bored or just not ready
-you tend to move at a slower pace and need to do something to
speed your body back up to the Green Zone
The Yellow Zone 
-you are beginning to lose control
-you need to slow down and check your body
-could be driven by “Disgust” 
*I don’t like this, I don’t like that, I don’t want to do that…
-could be driven by “Fear"
*I’m not sure about this, what’s going to happen…
this is where our anxiety/worry come from
-could be driven by “Excitement”
*The overly excited emotion, creates an inability to focus
 The Yellow Zone and Blue Zones are essentially the times you are beginning to Flip your Lid and need to catch your body before you fully Flip. When you fully Flip your Lid, you are in an exaggerated Yellow/Blue Zone state or have moved into the Red Zone. 
The Red Zone of “Anger” 
-frustration or being mad
-when someone gets so upset they are completely out of control
*this is often what we see when children get so mad they
hit others
-it is at this point that we need to tell our bodies to Stop!,
cool off and use a coping strategy
The goal of self regulating is to be able to listen to and read your body cues. We want our bodies to stay in the Green Zone and it is our job and responsibility to help ourselves get back to this zone when we feel our bodies starting to shift. We do this through using various coping strategies. If we do not help ourselves as we start to Flip our Lids, this can often lead to emotional reactions that tend to accompany Bad/Poor Choices. Again, each individual is in control of him/herself and is responsible for the choices he/she makes, which is why learning to self regulate is a crucial skill. 

*It is important to note that all of these emotions are essential to our survival and all serve an important role, however, students learn that there is a time and place for these emotions and regulating is knowing when they are and are not appropriate responses.

(For instance: seeing a snake on the path would be an essential time for  a “Fear” response- flight, fight, freeze, but walking into class and seeing a substitute teacher would not warrant the same “Fear” response).

If you’re interested in learning more about Flipping Our Lids and Emotional Responses, you can check out this kid friendly video from Kids Want to Know on Why we lose control of our emotions? https://youtu.be/3bKuoH8CkFc