Flagship Program
The BEAR Program
Every child gets a bear. Every teacher gets a framework. Every classroom gets a shared emotional language.
Every child gets a bear. Every teacher gets a framework. Every classroom gets a shared emotional language.
Developed at Bank Street College’s Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice, the BEAR Program gives each child a personal teddy bear they name, own, and bring home. The workshop trains educators to weave BEAR into circle time, transitions, conflict resolution, and daily routines - so that co-regulation has a shared object, a shared vocabulary, and a shared story.
One bear per child
named, owned, and taken home
Implementation arc
with classroom check-ins
Available in English
and Spanish
The BEAR Program was developed by Lesley Koplow, LCSW at Bank Street College of Education’s Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice. Koplow’s 2008 book Bears, Bears Everywhere! Supporting Children’s Emotional Health in the Classroom lays it out: when a child has a bear of their own—named, owned, taken home—the bear becomes what D. W. Winnicott called a transitional object. It carries the steadiness of a caregiver when the caregiver is not in the room. It gives feelings a place to land. It gives teachers a shared language for the work of sitting with a child while a feeling moves through.
Our co-founder Gabriel Guyton co-directs the Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice at Bank Street. When the program came to Western North Carolina, it came through that lineage—alongside our local partnership with Buncombe Partnership for Children, who brought BEAR into Asheville classrooms after Hurricane Helene. A bear is a small thing. After a flood, small things are what children hold onto.
The bear meets the child at the door. When a drop-off is hard, the bear holds the bridge—a familiar shape the child brought from home, now in the classroom where caregivers change hands.
The bears come too. Teachers notice when a bear is having a big feeling—tired, scared, jealous—and the whole room learns the language of feelings through the bear first.
A bear is not a behavior tool. But when a child has no words for what happened on the rug, the bear can be the one who “got knocked over,” “felt surprised,” “needs a minute.” The child gets to narrate from a step away.
Naps, departures, substitute days, the week a friend moves—these are the moments transitional objects were named for. The bear travels the whole arc with the child.
Koplow’s original work was in classrooms after Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, and family loss. BEAR makes it possible for a teacher to stay present with grief without needing a script—this is Being With given a shape a small child can hold.
The bear is the child’s. Forever. Not a classroom toy that lives on a shelf. That matters because the work we start at school has to be survivable at 7pm on a Tuesday.
Preschool and K–2 teachers, Head Start staff, early ed program directors, and family childcare providers - anyone holding a room full of small feelings and looking for a tool that actually travels home with the child.
A BEAR kit, BEAR Journal materials, a 6-month implementation checklist, and language you can use Monday morning. Not theory - moves.
We right-size the workshop to your team - from a half-day introduction to a full multi-session coaching arc with classroom follow-up.
To inquire about upcoming workshop dates, book a private cohort for your school or agency, or ask questions about implementation, reach out below.
Inquire About BEARS →We’re happy to talk through how BEARS could live inside your classrooms, your staff meetings, and your daily routines.
Get in Touch →