Category: Elementary School

Within this category, essays and articles focus on effectively teaching children in the pre-school and elementary grades. It’s a great place to find teaching tips and get advice from experienced practitioners.

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Building Relationships through the Zones of Regulation

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At the beginning of every class I check-in with my students. I want to see how they are feeling both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Check-ins help me build relationships with my students and lets them know I care about them. I want them to understand that I am always there to listen and support them and that I authentically care about them as a person.  Currently, I do this through the Zones of Regulation which is an amazing visual for both my students and me.

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The Zones of Regulation is a systematic approach used to teach students self-regulation by categorizing all the different emotions they are feeling into four colored zones. The red zone is used to describe feelings of anger, rage, feeling out of control, feeling terrified, etc. The yellow zone describes feelings of frustration, fear, anxiety, excitement, etc. The green zone is where we would like our students when learning. This zone is depicted by feelings of calm, focus, and feeling ready and eager to learn. The blue zone is used to represent feelings of sadness, sickness, boredom, tiredness, etc.

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Using PE to Find the Highlight of the Day

(2 Minute Read)

Dependent on the world around us, the new school year has been extremely different and challenging for all involved. We all know this. PE at many schools looks very different, my program included.

My instructional setting was fully online for the first quarter and has since shifted to an A/B in-person every other day hybrid model. With that, we only see our students twice a week in person. It’s been a trying process to create a PE program that is fun and effective for all students regardless of their living situations. It’s also been a constant battle with the at school restrictions, notably, trying to build effective and comprehensive activities while students are masked and cannot dress down with the locker rooms off-limits.

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Conquering the Creativity Challenge

PHE America Repeats
10 previously published articles that we think you will enjoy

Reprint 10 of 10
(Originally published – September 6, 2018)

Have you ever observed a great activity or lesson and thought, “Wow, what a great idea! My students would LOVE that!”? Then, shortly after, you hear that annoying inner voice in your head whisper “Too bad I’m not creative.” Well, it is time to challenge that inner voice to stop thinking so negatively and work with you here! Seriously, if that inner voice was one of my friends we would not be spending a whole lot of quality time together!

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What does successful PE teaching look like?

PHE America Repeats
10 previously published articles in 10 days that we think you will enjoy

Reprint 7 of 10
(Originally published – February 1, 2015)

A few months ago I was invited to help review a middle school PE program. It wasn’t what I expected. I soon learned that some of America’s richest and best-known families pay a hefty sum to send their kids to this private school. I was intrigued to understand why. And it soon became apparent. The culture of the school was not what I expected.

Kids playing soccer

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