Tagged: Sandra Chafouleas


As More Weapons are Brought to Schools, Parents and Administrators Seek a Safe Path Forward

February 13, 2023

Sandra Chafouleas, a professor at the UConn Neag School of Education, said she believed the increase in weapons was a signal that students’ “needs aren’t being met” — and specifically the need for connection.

“Belonging, social connection, feeling [a] sense of mastery … kids bring weapons to school because they’re not feeling those things or because they’ve learned it or modeled it as acceptable behavior in other spaces,” she said.


The Power of Puppets: New Toolkit Helps Kids Process “Heavy Feelings”

January 9, 2023

Emily Wicks with UConn’s Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry noticed the pandemic-era disruptions to kids’ social-emotional learning and development, and reached out to Sandy Chafouleas at the university’s Neag School of Education. Together they developed Feel Your Best Self, a puppet-centered program aimed at helping “strengthen the emotional well-being of elementary-aged children.”


In One First-Grade Classroom, Puppets Teach Children to ‘Shake Out the Yuck’

November 11, 2022

The five-minute video Denoya’s students watch is part of a series produced through a new pilot program called Feel Your Best Self, or FYBS. Each video is built around a simple strategy to help kids recognize and manage their feelings – or to help friends who are struggling.

“It’s taking what we know works,” says Emily Iovino, a trained school psychologist who is part of the FYBS team.


“The Making of Feel Your Best Self: Development and Scriptwriting” Online Forum

November 10, 2022

In this forum, Feel Your Best Self creators Sandy Chafouleas and Emily Wicks and script writers Yanniv Frank, Emily Iovino, and Sarah Nolen talk about the development of this unique interdisciplinary collaboration between UConn’s Collaboratory on School and Child Health and Ballard Institute to use puppetry to promote emotional well-being in elementary-aged children.


The Student Mental Health Crisis: Resources for Reporters

October 14, 2022

Chafouleas and her colleagues developed their Feel Your Best Self program to help children aged 3-12 years improve ways of relating to others as they return to the classroom post-pandemic. The program represents a partnership between Chafouleas’ group, the Collaboratory on School and Child Health, and the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, the world’s only graduate program in puppetry, both at the University of Connecticut.





Back to School Authority: Tips for Adjusting to Middle School

August 16, 2022

This week, Eyewitness News is getting advice on how to help students who are going to school for the first time or moving from one school to another. Tuesday we’re focusing on helping kids transition from elementary to middle school. It can be challenging. It’s not just the next grade. It’s a new building, a new time of day, a different routine with more freedom, and more responsibilities.


Puppets Nico, CJ, and Mena

Feel Your Best Self: Educators, Puppets Unite to Teach Kids About Emotions

May 11, 2022

Enduring the turmoil of a global pandemic for more than two years now, many of us have struggled. We can recognize the importance of self-care and wellness, but not everyone has necessarily adopted a daily meditation practice or quit their late-night doomscrolling. By now, though, perhaps we can admit to ourselves one thing: It’s OK to not be OK in every moment.