Miss Erin Hornick (OT) and Ms. Kim Hall (PT) came to our class today and taught us all about self-regulation. Thank you for coming into our grade 1 class this morning!
Here are a few things we discussed today:
SELF REGULATION
· The definition of self regulation was explained in the presentation as follows: Having self regulation helps us to manage our thoughts, behaviors and emotions in order to have meaningful learning.
· The students were taught about basic brain structure and parts of the brain that helps us to think and make decisions (prefrontal cortex), and parts of the brain that react when we are stressed and put us in “fight or flight” mode (amygdala). By learning self regulation we are accessing our “thinking” brain not our “alarm” brain.
· Sensory tools are used to shut off the alarm brain and use the thinking brain. The students talked about what they do to calm down when they are upset. We talked about:
o Deep breathing
o Yoga
o Shutting off negative thoughts and thinking about something else
o Listening to music
o Colouring/drawing a picture
o Fidget tools
o Singing a song
o Go outside in nature
o Play a game (not on a screen)
o Take a break
o Get a drink of water
o Eat a nutritious snack
o Exercise/play at the playground
o Practice gratitude
o Meditation (which happens on Fridays!)
o Smelling tools (diffuser)
o Talk to a friend/teacher/parent
o Progressive muscle relaxation
· Students got to discuss which tools worked for them and why.
· At the end we talked about our emotions and that there are many more than happy, sad, scared etc. We used emoji’s to illustrate this.
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING SUGGESTIONS:
· Working on self regulation needs to be facilitated by adults as students in grade one will not be consistently independent in recognizing their emotions and knowing how to respond. Talking about it and practicing will help students become more automatic in regulating themselves.
· Talking about situations that trigger the stress response and recognizing it in your own body is important. Students can express how they feel by using simple language and labeling it as an emotion.
· Triggers or warning signs can also be explored by colouring in different parts of the body (on paper) that the student “feels” before they get upset. For example, sometimes the heart beats fast, or the teeth clench, or the head feels hot etc.
· Incorporate whole class calming strategies like stretch/movement breaks, yoga poses, deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, calm music.
· A calming space is already set up in some classrooms and in another space in the school. This area can have a bean bag, lycra, music, a blanket, and a glitter bottle. This can be used as a preventative strategy to combat stress, or as a calm down space when a student is angry/nervous/anxious.
FYI-
Here is a link about our Evergreen Theater residency.
Would you like to order a YEARBOOK, the order deadline has now been extended to March 31st.
You can order and pay online with your MYCBE/PowerSchool account, you will find the fee under
School Based Optional Fees. Click on the yearbook icon and you will asked to add to your cart,
this will automatically add the $25 fee to your account. You can call the school office ask for the
fee to be attached the fee to your account, please email me directly at catunney@cbe.ab.ca or
call 403 777 6259 with your request.
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