Self-Regulation Zones Check-In Chart and Strategy Cards

About this resource

EVERYTHING INSIDE — 25 pages, 250 type-in fields

• A self-regulation color chart: all 4 color levels on one gauge, meant to be posted and taught from, not cut apart — Blue, Green, Yellow and Red, each with a plain-language state and body-signal description this file wrote itself (not any outside framework's wording)
• 4 color-level cards, 2 inches square, sized for velcro dots: blue, green, yellow and red
• 12 strategy cards, 2 inches square: criss-cross, move, lift, drink, couch, count, ask for help, draw, music, rest, outside, walk
• Every card and the chart twice: a full-color set for the wall and the board, and a black-and-white ink-saver set for the photocopier
• A color check-in board with one main "right now" slot and a six-slot "Today's Check-Ins" strip with a time line under each
• Two desk-size check-in boards on one sheet, for a folder or a second setting
• 12 blank strategy cards with a type-in word line, for any strategy the printed set does not cover
• A how-to page: before the first day, the three moves every time, choosing a strategy, if the zone picked surprises you, when a strategy doesn't have a card yet, writing down what changes
• A color check-in log (16 rows: date, time, color level, strategy tried, how checked in, where, notes)
• A weekly roll-up (8 weeks) with a check-ins-per-week graph
• A filled example — an invented student, one day on the log and three weeks on the roll-up, every number re-counted from its own row
• A family page with a kitchen-size chart and board and six home strategies on one sheet
• A hand-off page so a paraprofessional or another classroom runs the same chart and board the same way
• A phrase bank: 24 lines in 6 groups (spoken lines for the chart and board, written starters for the log, the roll-up and the note home)
• A storage and binder label sheet: 11 labels and a spine strip
• Start Here, a contents page with page thumbnails, and a "what's next" back page

A self-regulation check-in tool that comes with its own data. Most zone-style check-in charts stop at the poster; this one adds a cut-apart card for every zone, a bank of strategy cards, a check-in board, a log, a weekly roll-up and a phrase bank behind it, so a zone named at check-in turns into a line on a page a case manager can bring to a meeting. This file uses a plain four-color check-in scale and its own wording throughout — it is not affiliated with, and does not reproduce, any single published curriculum.

The Chart And Cards

• The chart: all 4 zones on one gauge, for teaching and for the wall
• The zone cards (4) — Blue, Green, Yellow, Red: the same four zones, cut apart so one can move onto the check-in board
• The strategy cards (12) — criss-cross, move, lift, drink, couch, count, ask for help, draw, music, rest, outside, walk: concrete, single-picture strategies a student can reach for at any zone

Every picture was chosen to be named in one word by a young child, in color AND in the black-and-white set; a word that failed in either set was left out of both. Cards are 2 inches square; the board's main slot is sized to match.

The Board

• Color check-in board — one "right now" panel with a slot, and a "Today's Check-Ins" strip of six smaller slots with a time line under each.
• Two desk-size check-in boards — two boards on one sheet, cut apart, for a folder or a second student.

The boards carry no pictures, so they print the same in color or black and white.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF: type into the board's slots and time lines, the log, the roll-up, the family page, the hand-off page and the blank cards, or print and use a pen. The chart and card pages print on cardstock or plain paper; the cards cut along dashed lines. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT an editable online slideshow or word-processor document.

It is a way for a student to name how keyed-up they feel on a four-color scale and reach for a strategy, with that check-in written down. It is not a behavior plan, a clinical finding, a screening tool or a program of any kind, and it promises no outcome. It carries no prompt hierarchy, fading schedule or mastery rule; it does not say why a zone was picked or what to do about it — how the chart is used with a student, and for how long, is what your team's plan says. The goal line and the criterion field are blanks for your district's own wording and your team's own number. The log counts two things: which zone was named, and what strategy, if any, was tried.

Who This Is For

Special education teachers and paraprofessionals building self-regulation vocabulary with early, pre-reading or emerging-language students, case managers who need that use to show up as data, and the families who get the home page sent home.

More In The Collection

This is the fifth set in the Visual Supports Collection, alongside Feelings Chart and Check-In Cards and Calm-Down Choice Cards and Self-Regulation Board; more picture-card sets are being added to the collection regularly, all on the same cards-plus-data shape.

Pictures (color pages): Noto Emoji by Google, Apache License 2.0. Pictures (ink-saver pages): Fluent Emoji, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, MIT License.

From Bright Path Sped, special education resources: teacherspayteachers.com/store/bright-path-sped