At SS Peter and Paul Catholic Primary Academy and Nursery we introduce children to the zones of regulation.
The Zones of Regulation are four color-coded zones—Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red that categorize feelings based on energy and alertness levels to help individuals, especially children, understand and manage their emotions. The program uses this framework to teach self-regulation, with the Green Zone representing a calm and focused state, while the others represent states needing adjustment.
The four zones are:
- Blue Zone: A low-energy state. Examples include feeling sad, tired, bored, or sick.
- Green Zone: A calm and focused state. This is the ideal state for learning and is considered a “ready to learn” zone.
- Yellow Zone: A heightened sense of alertness. This can include feelings like excitement, nervousness, anxiety, or silliness, and typically involves more energy.
- Red Zone: An extremely heightened state of emotion. This includes intense emotions like anger, panic, or extreme elation.
This is a framework designed to help individuals identify their emotional state, be more aware of other feelings, recognise how they are feeling and how others might be. This will help promote daily conversations about wellbeing, making it easier for young people to talk about and recognise their emotions. Zones of regulation encourages pupils to recognise how they feel or their body feels. It is our intention to support with regulation strategies to help children feel more regularly in the green zone.
Video explaining zones of regulation: