The Tikkun Project
Lesson
2
Looking for Indicators of Feelings in Stories
Concept
Recognizing the visible signs of someone else's zone is the first step toward knowing how to help them.
Focus Question
How can we tell what zone someone else is in, even if they haven't told us?
Knowledge & Understanding Goals
Kindergarten Program (2016), Self-Regulation and Well-Being frame, Overall Expectation 6: Demonstrate an awareness of their own health and well-being (extended here to recognizing others' states).
Kindergarten Program (2016), Overall Expectation 22: Communicate their thoughts and experiences through words, gestures, and/or pictures.
Thinking & Learning Skills
Thinking Skills (Evidence-Based Reasoning): Citing specific story details as proof for a claim about a character's internal state.
Social Skills (Empathy & Perspective-Taking): Recognizing another person's zone from external signs.
Learner Profile Connection (Caring / Communicators): Students practice noticing and naming what someone else might be feeling.
Context
Direct practice applying the Zones of Regulation framework from Lesson 1. Reminder for later lessons: bring the four corner posters from Lesson 1 back out as a quick visual refresher rather than re-teaching the framework.
Lesson Outline
REVIEWING THE ZONES
Bring the four corner posters back out and post them visibly. Ask a few students to remind the class what each zone feels like in the body.
READING STORIES FOR CLUES
Choose storybooks where characters experience a range of emotions. Students listen and look for evidence showing what zone a character is likely in, completing: "I think ___ is probably in the ___ Zone because ___." Record observations on a four-section chart.
NOTICING HOW CHARACTERS HELP EACH OTHER
Ask: "Describe a situation where one character helped another character move into a more helpful zone. How did they do it?" No zone is the "best" zone for every situation.
Notes for Teaching and Evaluation
Asking students to cite specific story evidence is the same skill introduced in Lesson 3.
Naming that no zone is "best" prevents a common misreading at this age.
Reviewing the corner posters through scenarios create an opportunity for students to practice recognizing indicators of each zone.