Kids thrive when they feel good about themselves

At Calpella Elementary, like schools across America and the world during the pandemic, we are challenged to create a meaningful learning experience for all students while fostering a comprehensive social emotionalsupport system for students and their families. Early on, we understood how critical it was to continue to have our school counselor connect with students.

As time went on, the need to support students’ and families’ social-emotional well-being became increasingly vital, so I want to explain a few of the things we are doing so far this year at Calpella Elementary.

Stephanie Gravatt, Calpella Elementary’s counselor, provided an emotional support toolbox for every student to teach the Zones of Regulation curriculum through district funding. Zones are colorcoded and represent how much control and energy we have in each one and the various emotions that fall into the four zones. Learning how to manage our zones (emotions) is important so children can maintain healthy relationships, do well in school, and feel good about themselves.

At Calpella, every student received a pencil box with a letter to parents explaining the Zones of Regulation, zone cards, a happy face stress ball, playdough, fidgets, and handouts to be used in lessons related to the Zones. The zones toolbox is meant to be a safe place for the students to store the things that will help them while at home. The students have been really excited to receive their special boxes and use the tools inside.

Along with small groups and individual contact with students, Ms. Gravatt visits all 20 classrooms bi-weekly to teach students about the Zones. She teaches lessons on emotional regulation techniques, how to use the zones, reading stories, friendship, how our words affect others, making mistakes, and how to deal with problems.

Gravatt states, “My goal is to try to give all students the social-emotional tools they need to help them in life, not just during school hours. I look forward to continuing my visits to each class and teaching social-emotional skills school-wide.”

Calpella students are supported through the district’s Positive Behavior Instructional Support System (PBIS) by Susann Carlo, Calpella PBIS coordinator. As well as being a veteran classroom teacher, Ms. Carlo incorporates her training as a yoga and meditation instructor to infuse mindfulness and movement into her weekly or biweekly Second Step curriculum lessons for social-emotional learning.

In Ms. Carlo’s lessons, children start with Skills for Learning, and we have a school-wide acronym called SHINE Online to support our young learners in implementing the skills daily. Next, they study Empathy and Feelings, where students learn how to identify their emotions and recognize emotions in the people around them. From there, the curriculum goes on to Managing Emotions, and we talk about how to cope when you’re feeling embarrassed, angry, etc. Finally, the year closes with a unit on Problem Solving. “We always close our lessons on a high note, with kids giving themselves a great big hug and affirming that they are wonderful and doing their best job,” said Ms. Carlo.

We love empowering our students with social-emotional skills that weren’t taught to many from older generations. Kids thrive when they feel good about themselves and confident in their abilities. I am so proud to have such a wonderful staff that provides those opportunities for them whenever possible.