Each morning, once announcements are over and her students are done with their breakfast, Mount Healthy South Elementary School teacher McKenna Flores invites everyone up to the front of the room where they sit in a circle on the floor.
Flores sits with them. On a rainy Thursday in late April, she holds a stuffed tiger. Sometimes it's a teddy bear or some other talking piece, she says.
The class reviews color-coded emotional “zones” displayed on the board: blue means sick, sad or tired; green means happy, calm or focused; yellow means worried, silly or excited; and red means angry or upset.
As local school districts spend millions in federal aid to catch students up after a year of disruptions due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, many are focusing first on emotional recovery. In some districts, nearly one in three children will participate in summer learning programs, focusing on unfinished learning objectives and redeveloping social relationships with peers.
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