A child-friendly Zones of Regulation bear poster co-designed with a Year 5 student to support emotional literacy and self-regulation. This colourful visual resource uses different bear species as memorable metaphors for emotions and regulation states. I designed it with one of my Year 5 students as part of a discussion about feelings, focus, energy levels and the Zones of Regulation. The poster links each bear to a feeling or state, helping pupils use concrete, engaging animal metaphors to recognise and name what they are experiencing. The Sun Bear is shown as a flexible example because hunger may appear differently for different children — sometimes as low energy, sometimes as irritability, and sometimes as feeling mostly okay but needing food. The Polar Bear is included as an “unclassified” example to show that physical states such as feeling cold do not always fit neatly into one emotional zone. This resource may be useful for: Zones of Regulation displays PSHE and emotional literacy lessons SEN / SEND support Visual teaching 1:1 tutoring, mentoring or intervention work Calm corners or regulation stations Helping pupils discuss feelings through metaphor Supporting children to notice, name and understand body states It is designed to be warm, visual and memorable, especially for pupils who respond well to animals, humour, visual metaphor and concrete examples. It can be used as a classroom poster, a discussion prompt, or a starting point for children to create their own regulation metaphors.