By Bob Groeneveld/Langley Advance Times
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The kids at Dorothy Peacock Drama Club are in the zone.
They and their teachers have created a play based on a well known story to explore the Zones of Regulation, a program which helps children with self-regulation and emotional control.
The kids are performing Little Zone Riding Hood this week at their school.
“This is a group of Grade 7 students at Dorothy Peacock Elementary who have committed their mornings and lunch times to creating a production to educate students on important topics,” said teacher Janine Jackson.
“They’ve really worked hard at it,” she said.
The kids created the concept for the story of Little Red Riding Hood that puts it into the context of the four Zones of Regulation, a device adopted by a number of schools, Jackson said, to help children understand their emotions, and to help them to maintain control.
Their teachers, Dayna Coulter and Adam Knowlson then wrote the play with input from the kids.
The story is retold four times by four different casts, each time representing one of the four colour-coded zones.
In the Blue Zone, the cast is sad and tired, bored and maybe sick – “those feelings of being blue,” explained Jackson.
The Red Zone storytellers will be angry and upset, “with lots of yelling.” The kids will be out of control and unable to focus.
Yellow is the colour of excitement, so Riding Hood’s Yellow Zone cast will tell the tale from a frustrated or worried point of view, “not in full control.”
In the Green Zone, the tale takes on an aura of calm focus. This is the zone of feeling happy and contented.
In the end, the zones come together, showing how everyone needs all four zones – an understanding of all their emotions – to live life to the fullest.
Jackson said not to expect the kids to play the zones that they may personally be more familiar with.
Two of the quietest girls in the school are part of the Red Zone cast, for instance.
“It’s going to be very hard for them,” Jackson smiled.
Little Zone Riding Hood opens at 1 p.m. on June 5 and continues with two performances on June 6, at 1 and 7 p.m.
All performances run approximately 30 minutes, with no intermission, in the Dorothy Peacock Elementary Gymnasium, 20292 91A Ave.
Tickets are by donation with proceeds going to Anxiety Canada and future drama performances.
