It’s hard to believe we have finished Recess Club for the 2015-2016 school year! Our Social Detectives had so much fun working with a partner practicing strategies from the Who Goes First Wheel. The strategies helped students determine a fair way to decide who gets to go first during a game or activity either in the classroom, at recess or even at home. Being fair helps us to stay in the green zone and continue to have comfortable thoughts and feelings when we are playing games with others.  We also discussed how it makes us feel when we ask someone to play with us and they say no. Sometimes this can put us in the blue or possibly the yellow zone. We learned that sometimes it’s okay to say no to someone and sometimes we have to say yes.  All of our Social Detectives decided that you have to say YES to someone when it’s your responsibility or you make a promise. It is okay to say NO when you made someone else a promise, someone asks you to do a DOUBLE D (dangerous or destructive), someone asks you to not follow the I-CARE rules, or you want some alone time. Sometimes we can say NO but it is important to say it in a friendly voice and not everyday. If we say no to someone everyday that will lead to that person having uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. They may think we don’t want to be their friend.

When we use our inviting, friendship and play skills we have fun and our friends have fun. It also helps to establish and agree on the rules before a game. This helps everyone know what to do, reduce conflicts and makes sure everyone plays by the same rule. Sometimes the rules have to change in the middle of a game. Students learned that we call this renegotiating. Social Detectives worked hard to determine the steps for establishing and how to renegotiate. Adults modeled these skills by role-playing how to establish the rules for a tag game (who knew there was so many kinds) and how to use the solution wheel to renegotiate. Then our social detectives had a blast role-playing establishing and renegotiating with a variety of games together.

Social Detectives learned what to do when a game has already started and they want to join. Using think aloud strategies students saw adults watch an existing game, wait for pause, make a comment about the game and then ask to join. Then our detectives role-played this skill. We were amazed by the wonderful comments about games made during the role-plays. For example, “the game your playing looks like so much fun”.  We finished our playing an activity unit with learning about what it feels like to be left out. That can sometimes put us in the blue, yellow or even the red zone. We read the book Feeling Left Out by Kate Petty and Charlotte Firmin and learned that everyone feels left out sometimes. If we see a friend that feels left out we may want to invite them to play with us. We learned that when we feel left out we can use our learned zone strategies and invite someone to play with us. We can use our zone strategies to calm down or feel better then invite someone else to play with us.

During these last few months we have also talked a lot about what it means to be a good sport and that being a good sport includes expected behaviors for both winning and loosing.  Our social detectives learned to understand the difference between being excited because we won and bragging and how act in positive ways when we win or loose.  We learned that it is okay to be excited when winning and what to say in order to celebrate our winning but not making the other person feel badly because they lost. We also learned that it is equally as important to be a good sport if you lose.  Reading Mia Hamm’s book Winners Never Quit! helped us learn how to loose gracefully and persevere even when loosing. It is important to remember that “Sometimes I Win, Sometimes I Lose, I Stay Calm.” To encourage and demonstrate perseverance, we read the old favorite “The Tortoise and the Hare”. This fable shows our detectives that if you take your time and work diligently, you are more likely to be successful then if you act with haste and carelessly.

To encourage generalizing these skills within the playground and in the community, our social detectives are given training assignments that reflect all of the lessons we have learned. Be on the lookout for your social detective being a good sport, dealing with losing, and persevering at home and in the community!

Summer Activities that Foster Self-regulation Skills

Adult Resources

Teaching Self-control: Evidence-based Tips is an excellent article, which provides concrete suggestions on ways to assist your child with developing self-regulation.

http://www.parentingscience.com/teaching-self-control.html

Activities that Teach Self-Control another great article with tips on helping children develop self-regulation skills.  http://www.buzzle.com/articles/activities-that-teach-self-control.html

Child Resources
The Zones of Regulation App is based on the book and curriculum Zones of Regulation by Leah Kuypers ( http://zonesofregulation.com/). It is designed to support kids who struggle with social and emotional self-regulation.   The Zone program teaches children to conceptualize their feelings and physical levels of alertness into four zones.  It also explores possible triggers for each of the zones as well as strategies for managing these feelings and maintaining appropriate behavior.  Children need to be competent readers to play the App independently.
If you decide to purchase this App for your child, I recommended that you closely monitor his or her progress through the App, asking questions and facilitating discussions about how the App's content can be generalized to the his or her life.
The App is available online for all devices: iPads and androids.  Just search for The Zones of Regulation App. 

Games 

Zones Bingo Website

These games foster self-regulation and teach children the skills listed below:

o   Red Light, Green Light –  pay attention, follow directions and wait their turn

o   Simon Says -  listen carefully, pay attention and directions

o   Hide n’ Seek - wait patiently and quietly

o   Role Playing – provides opportunity to think about other choices and not respond impulsively.

Make the games more challenging by changing the rules (Play Opposite Simon Says in which the children do the opposite of what Simon says).

Additional Games

·  Blink.  In this simple game, kids are supposed to sit in pairs across each other at a table or preferably on the ground. At the count of three, kids stare into each others eyes. The first one to blink, loses the game. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/activities-that-teach-self-control.html

·  The Freeze game. Kids dance when the music plays and freeze when it stops. Dance quickly for fast-tempo songs, slowly for slow-tempo songs. And then reverse the cues: Fast music = slow dancing. Slow music = fast dancing.  See more at: http://www.parentingscience.com/teaching-self-control.html#sthash.ub41pqdq.dpuf

Classic Operation, Twister and Jenga are also games that teach self-control.