"... a curriculum geared toward helping students gain skills in consciously regulating their actions, which in turn leads to increased control and problem solving abilities. Using a cognitive behavior approach, the curriculum's learning activities are designed to help students recognize when they are in different states called "zones," with each of four zones represented by a different color. In the activities, students also learn how to use strategies or tools to stay in a zone or move from one to another. Students explore calming techniques, cognitive strategies, and sensory supports so they will have a toolbox of methods to use to move between zones. To deepen students' understanding of how to self-regulate, the lessons set out to teach students these skills: how to read others' facial expressions and recognize a broader range of emotions, perspective about how others see and react to their behavior, insight into events that trigger their less regulated states, and when and how to use tools and problem solving skills. The curriculum's learning activities are presented in 18 lessons. To reinforce the concepts being taught, each lesson includes probing questions to discuss and instructions for one or more learning activities. Many lessons offer extension activities and ways to adapt the activity for individual student needs. The curriculum also includes worksheets, other handouts, and visuals to display and share. These can be photocopied from this book or printed from the accompanying CD."--Publisher's website.

Learning to self-regulate our Zones is hard, serious work that takes time and lots of practice. Tools to Try Cards for Kids is an easy, user-friendly way to help kids ages 5-10 metacognitively explore and practice over 50 self-regulation strategies and empower them to make choices toward figuring out what works best for them. The two-sided strategy cards are divided into five color-coded categories to show how the tools work in different ways to help social emotional learners self-regulate their feelings and emotions: · FEEL IT. These tools use our senses to support regulation and modulation. · MOVE IT. These tools integrate physical activity to impact regulation and reduce anxiety. · THINK IT. These tools provide thought-based strategies to help us regulate. · DO IT. Task and goal-oriented tools involve taking action. · CONNECT. Co-regulation tools encourage empathy, thinking of others, and accessing relationships for support. Each strategy card displays an illustration of the self-regulation tool performed by inclusive characters on one side and a how-to-do-it description on the reverse. Each card also includes a reflection to help kids consider how they feel after using the tool, how it can be used to help them regulate their Zones, and whether it’s the right tool for them. For best teaching practice, the strategy deck should be used in tandem with Chapter 4 lessons in The Zones of Regulation curriculum book. The cards are also useful tools when paired with other Zones-related products, such as Navigating The Zones, and the Advanced Pack: Cards to Extend Play with Navigating The Zones. This card deck is a supplement to, not a replacement for, the in-depth curriculum and lessons in The Zones of Regulation book.

Now in its third edition, this classic text remains the seminal resource for in-depth information about major concepts and principles of the cultural-historical theory developed by Lev Vygotsky, his students, and colleagues, as well as three generations of neo-Vygotskian scholars in Russia and the West. Featuring two new chapters on brain development and scaffolding in the zone of proximal development, as well as additional content on technology, dual language learners, and students with disabilities, this new edition provides the latest research evidence supporting the basics of the cultural-historical approach alongside Vygotskian-based practical implications. With concrete explanations and strategies on how to scaffold young children’s learning and development, this book is essential reading for students of early childhood theory and development.