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TUITION-FREE PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL SERVING PRE-K THROUGH 6TH GRADES
About Us » NBFA Comfort Bears

NBFA Comfort Bears

 

New Beginnings Family Academy (NBFA) is a public charter school committed to nurturing the academic and social-emotional growth of our students. NBFA’s Emotionally Responsive Practice model is a whole-child approach based on a deep understanding of child development as well as a respect for and acknowledgement of the life experiences that children bring to school. 

BearsNBFA Family and Community Engagement Coordinator Heidi Barker reads with a student in a cozy corner. NBFA students and staff are given comfort bears to connect with each other.

 

What are Comfort Bears?

 

At the core of NBFA’s ERP model is the NBFA Comfort Bears program. The proprietary Comfort Bears curriculum, which was developed by Bank Street College’s Office of Emotionally Responsive Practice Director Lesley Koplow, allows students to connect with their feelings which can help improve social, emotional and academic skills. While bears can help all children, they can be critical for students dealing with high emotions by giving them a tangible resource to process big feelings so that they can access their learning.

bears

 

Story-gathering & How Comfort Bears Function

 

Before the bears are distributed each year, NBFA teachers engage in “story-gathering,” a deep question and answer session with caregivers, designed to build strong relationships with the parents and their child/ren. Then, all NBFA students are given a bear and each child gives their bear a name and dresses it. This allows the students to bond with the bears and make them uniquely their own. Throughout the school day, students are given the opportunity to interact with their bears. To better incorporate bears into the busy school schedule, NBFA has reserved special Bear Buddy Time for students to recenter back to learning after lunch and recess.

 

Comfort Bears continue to be used by older students in literacy activities and to engage with the bears in more complex topics while still remaining comfortable. The bears also allow adults to connect on a deeper level with their students. 

 

students with bears

An NBFA upper grade student reads with the lower grade student for a buddy reading activity.

 

Thanks to the NBFA Comfort Bears program, students have a valuable resource to deal with everyday emotions that arise in their lives. Bears provide a gateway to enhance the teacher-child relationships and children’s ability to be empathetic to themselves and others.

 

To learn more about NBFA Comfort Bears, click here: https://tinyurl.com/5n83kucc

 

NBFA's Comfort Bears Curriculum is proudly sponsored by David and Lisa Schlakman.