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Are your students facing challenges in managing their emotions and struggling to adopt effective coping strategies for self-regulation? Do you observe behaviors such as being off-task, disruptive, distracted, or impulsive? If you’re seeking practical ideas to address these issues, consider implementing these self-regulation activities to enhance your students’ social-emotional intelligence.
Understanding that all behaviors have underlying reasons, these activities aim to empower students to recognize their emotions and equip them with diverse strategies for effective emotional management. The focus is on co-regulation, guiding students to find ways to calm down, maintain focus on learning, take stress breaks, and reduce anxiety. Engaging in social and emotional learning (SEL) through these activities not only contributes to improved classroom management but also equips students with lifelong skills.
As an advocate for the Zones™ curriculum in occupational therapy, I am dedicated to incorporating games and activities that seamlessly integrate all four Zones colors—blue, green, yellow, and red. The Zones of Regulation™, developed by LEAH KUYPERS, MA ED., OTR/L, serves as a valuable social-emotional learning curriculum, fostering self-regulation and emotional control in various settings, including school, occupational therapy sessions, and home.
For more information on the Zones of Regulation™, you can visit their official website. Please note that this post is independent and not affiliated with or authorized by Think Social Publishing, Inc., or Leah Kuypers, the author of The Zones of Regulation.
Explore the diverse range of games provided here, each offering a disguised opportunity for practicing and reviewing the Zones of Regulation™. These activities not only contribute to a fun learning experience but also seamlessly integrate into your Social Emotional Learning curriculum. Embrace these ideas to create an engaging and effective approach to social-emotional learning for your students.
- Uno: Play the classic Uno game with a Zones twist. Have the children identify emotions or strategies each time they change the color in the game.
- Trouble: When playing with 4 people you are using all four colors of the zones. Have students label the correct emotion or a strategy for their own color and any time they cause “trouble” by knocking someone back to the beginning. The same is true for Sorry.
- Darts balls: Name an emotion or strategy for each color you land on.
- Suspend: When Zone colored rods are placed kids must name an emotion or strategy for that color.
- Twister: As students spin and move they must name an emotion or strategy for the color they are moving to. You can also add the emotions to the circles and/or spinner. Right foot angry… You can laminate your spinner and write on the emotions with a dry erase marker so that you can still use it in a traditional way.
- Quirkle: This is a great visual perception game that includes shapes in the Zone’s colors. Label emotion or strategy as you add colored tiles.
- Pop-up pirate: This game may not be for everyone as it is a bit violent in theory. The boys I work with love it. Students must label an emotion or strategy each time a new colored sword is added.
- Jenga. Label each block red, yellow, green, or blue with markers or tape, you can also add the names of each zone. Each time a student pulls a piece they must tell an emotion or strategy for that zone.
- Headbandz: Replace cards with emotions or strategies. Children give clues to help their partner figure out which emotion or strategy they are wearing.
- Guess who: Replace the cards with girls and boys of each emotion. Check out this resource in my store for cards that fit the traditional game.
- Blocks: While building and creating with any 4 color blocks, students can name emotions and strategies for each color. I love Wedgit blocks.
- Blokus: Includes tiles in the zones colors.
If you are looking for printable or digital resources that will support social-emotional learning curriculums such as How Does Your Engine Run™, PBIS™, SEL™, & ZONEs of Regulation™ check out my TpT Store or Boom Store.
Check out my Free Resource Library for a great visual activity to do with your students. You will find directions on how to do an activity with a soda can along with some supporting self-regulation reflection worksheets. This is a hit with my middle school students but works well with elementary students too. As you are finishing the activity you pretend to open the shaken can over someone’s head, they think it will explode all over them. If you have done the activity correctly the “triggered” can will not explode. Check out the full version here.
The goal of the activity is to teach students to take care of their emotions before they explode. This activity is a great way to discuss small triggers throughout our day that could lead to an explosion. This is a great addition to your work on SEL, PBIS, and/or The Zones of Regulation™. This is a perfect visual for discussing emotions, triggers, strategies, and tools for self-regulation.
Below is another coping strategy game you will find in my Free Resource Library. Or check out the full version in my store.
About the Author
I am a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) and have been working in a public school system for more than 25 years. My resources can be found on TPT, BOOM Learning, Made by Teachers, Classful, and Your Therapy Source. I appreciate your interest wherever you wish to shop.
My mission is to help you find creative ideas to incorporate fine motor, visual perception, gross motor, and social-emotional learning into your lessons.
I hope you consider signing up for my Free Resource Library with your Email. I send out emails about once a week and share resources, tips, and planning ideas for your classroom or occupational therapy needs. Hopefully, these help your students work on building their skills in a fun and engaging way.
