Laurel is committed to promoting education for the whole child, this includes Social Emotional Learning (SEL). SEL helps us create an even greater safe and supportive school environment and is an integral piece of our school community. We have a few different programs that we teach here at Laurel that compliment our ROAR code, here they are:
Second Step: This is our primary SEL and it taught weekly in each classroom. Just like reading, writing, and math, we give our students opportunities to practice what they learn fluidly throughout the school day. There are four units that make up this program.
Unit 1: Skills for Learning
Unit 2: Empathy
Unit 3: Emotion Management
Unit 4: Problem Solving Skills
Zones of Regulation: The Zones of Regulation is a curriculum geared towards teaching children the skills and vocabulary needed to recognize their emotional state, name their feelings, and take control of their behaviors. Have you heard your child naming their feeling with a color? These are the Zones! Each classroom has Zones tools and a Zones break space so students can work on finding their calm.
Blue Zone: Feeling low, maybe sad, tired, sick, down
Green Zone: Ready to learn, maybe calm, content, happy, connected
Yellow Zone: Loss of some control, maybe excited, worried, frustrated
Red Zone: Loss of control, maybe angry, panicked, terrified
Peacekeeper: Peacekeeper is a conflict resolution strategy rooted within a restorative justice approach. We utilize peace circles and conflict resolution strategies that help kiddos express hurts/concerns and make amends/apologies in effective ways. This is also allows our staff to hold students accountable for repairing relationships as well as taking ownership and accepting responsibility for any harm done. Peacekeepers teaches our community life skills for problem-solving.
If you have any feedback for Laurel’s SEL practices, please let us know by reaching out to the Laurel Counseling Team.