Thursday, December 10, 2015

Welcome to the Robinson Recess Club Blog!

We are so excited to share with you more information about what Recess Club is, resources you can use at home and frequent updates on what it is we are teaching our First grade students. You can find more information about who we are, what Recess Club entails, our curriculum and resources under pages.

Our First grade students have been very busy learning to be Social Detectives and how to be a good a friend. A Social Detective uses their eyes, ears, brains and bodies to figure out what we expect friends to do and say, as well as what is likely to happen next. Children were asked to notice these expected (friendly) behaviors and to practice using these expected behaviors throughout their school days, at home and within the community.

Student's also learned about unexpected (unfriendly) behaviors and how to use their whole body to listen. We explored what whole body listening looks like and how this  in combination with expected behavior leads our friends to have comfortable thoughts, which helps us make and keep our friends. We also learned how unexpected behaviors can make it difficult to make and keep friends because they give our friends uncomfortable thoughts and feelings.
Children are learning specifically how to use their bodies in developing and maintaining friendships through self-regulation. Using the Zones of Regulation by Leah Kuypers. Many of our First Grade students were introduced to this curriculum during Kindergarten. In Recess Club, they are learning to identify the various feelings our bodies feel throughout the course of the day and how to label each feeling according to a zone. We've discussed how we strive to maintain control of our bodies and behaviors and how the green zone is optimal for learning and being just right. This promotes comfortable thoughts and feelings.

The  Zones of Regulation includes 4 zones:
  1. Green: when our body/engine is running just right and we are ready to work or play.
     2.  Blue: when our body/engine is running low, our body has low energy and we may feel tired or 
                   sick.

     3.  Yellow: when our body/engine is running a bit higher, our body has some extra energy and we 
                        may lose some control.

     4.  Red: when our engine is running high/fast and we have a lot of extra energy in our bodies. We    
                   are likely to lose control.

After introducing the Zones, we then explored tool/strategies they may use to assist them when their bodies are in a zone. Students enjoyed identifying each zone and modeling what tool they could use within that zone to help them return to the green zone.

We will conclude this unit throughout December and through beginning of January by discussing differences, making smart guesses and thinking with our eyes. Using the video: Everybody's Different we will discuss and explore how we all have strengths and areas of difficulty. Students will learn that having areas of difficulty is okay and each of us can all try our best when anything is hard for us. In addition, we will discuss caring ways to be helpful to our friends when something is difficult for him or her.

~Jennifer Bonenfant SST; Kristina Casavant SST and Mary Terrio School Counselor~