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Sacramento Country Day School

Our Lower School Buddy Bench

Our Lower School Buddy Bench
Our Lower School Buddy Bench

This year, the Lower School faculty is implementing a Buddy Bench on the Lower School playground. In all grade levels, this new tool for making connections and starting friendships, is being introduced in homerooms. Teachers are sharing The Buddy Bench by Patty Brozo with their students and practicing how to use the Buddy Bench to be welcoming, inclusive, and community-minded. After much discussion, the chosen inscription on the bench is “Country Day Lower School…Where New Friendships Begin."

Our goals for the Buddy Bench are to empower children to use strategies if they are lonely and find a playmate when needed. We want our students to notice others, especially someone who could use an invitation to join. We want to value making new connections between students in our grade and other grades, too.

Chat with your Lower School student and see how it’s going for them. The rules for the bench are below as a starting point of conversation.
  • Before you sit, think of something you’d like to do. Ask someone to play that with you.
  • While you sit on the bench, look around for a game you could join.
  • Play with the first peer who invites you to play.
  • If you see something you’d like to do, get off the bench!
  • If you see someone on the bench, ask that person to play with you.
  • Keep playing with your new friends!