Talking with Kids About the News, Emergencies & Tragedy: For Home & Classroom

WXXI Education curated a list of resources to help adults (parents, caregivers, educators) discuss emergencies, news headlines and when tragedy strikes. 

Learn how to use discussion prompts, media, songs, books and activities to calm young people's fears, stimulate their minds, and encourage them to think about their place in today's world. This list includes the best in public media resources from PBS KIDS for Parents, Arthur, Mister Rogers, Sesame Street in Communities, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, PBS Newshour Extra and PBS LearningMedia to assist you. 

Resources for: Younger Children | Older Students

For Younger Children

These resources are appropriate for students PreK-5th grade.

PBS KIDS: When Something Scary Happens
These resources to help families cope in emergencies and other challenging times. The collection includes helpful items from Daniel Tiger and Arthur, such as:

• How to make a family plan for emergencies
• Video clips, songs and discussions when scary things happen
• Activities and books to help with emotions and understanding.
  
  

PBS KIDS for Parents Talking with Kids About the News: 

• Find out what your child knows about the news.
• Listen to what your child tells you.
• Ask a follow-up question.
• Shield children under age eight from disturbing news.
• Avoid repeated TV viewings of the same news event.
• Monitor older children's exposure to the news.
• Develop an ongoing dialogue with your child about what's happening in the world.
• Lean on helpful resources:
• Helping Kids Navigate Scary News
• Helping Children with Tragic Events in the News
• Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: Life's Little Lessons
  
• How to Prepare Children for Unexpected Events & Emergencies

Sesame Street in Communities Toolkits:

• Community Violence: It's hard to know how to help young children understand and cope with the effects of violence, but there are ways to help them feel safer and more secure... and build hope for a more peaceful, kinder future.
• Gun Violence: What is Violence? (video), Avoiding the Media (article), What is Gun Violence? (article), Stress in Preschoolers (article)
   
• Here For Each Other: Help parents and caregivers speak with children about difficult events: Toolkit Resources
  
• Download: Here for Each Other printable toolkit
  
  
• When Families Grieve: Presents families' personal stories about coping with the death of a parent and difficult life transitions as well as strategies that have helped these families move forward.
  
  
• Handling Emergencies: Preparing young children with a family plan for emergency situations helps them feel empowered.
• Download: Let's Get Ready Family Guide
• Download: Let's Get Ready Educator Guide
  
  
• Traumatic Experiences: When a child endures a traumatic experience, the whole family feels the impact. But adults hold the power to help lessen its effects. Several factors can change the course of kids’ lives: feeling seen and heard by a caring adult, being patiently taught coping strategies and resilience-building techniques, and being with adults who know about the effects of such experiences. Here are ways to bring these factors to life.

Arthur's Family Health - Resilience
 What can we say to children when public tragedies, natural disasters, and upsetting events occur? How can we support our children during challenging times? And how can empathy build social skills? Here are some resources, activities, and videos to help you and your child cope and build resilience.

• Resilience
• Tips for Grownups
• Download: "Helping Children Become Resilient" Educator Guide

NPR
This list of resources includes articles and listening opportunities for adults that support children - focusing on how to approach talking about "terrible things" and strategies for having meaningful conversations about difficult topics. 

• How to Talk With Kids About Terrible Things
• NPR's Life Kit podcasts: Parenting Difficult Conversations 
• • What to Say to Kids When the News is Scary
  • Now is a Good Time to Talk to Kids about Civics
  • When the Headlines Won't Stop, Here's How to Cope with Anxiety
  • Be Honest and Concrete: Tips for Talking to Children about Death

For Older Students

These resources are appropriate for middle and high school level students. 

PBS NewsHour & NewsHour Extra Resources:

• PBS NewsHour Classroom Collection on PBS LearningMedia: This collection of daily and weekly news helps teachers and students identify the who, what, when, where, and why-it-matters of major national and international news stories. Created for educators to use with students in grades 7-12, the Latest News Story takes the best of the PBS NewsHour news program and pairs it with discussion questions, lesson plans, and stories developed specifically for students. Topics such as Civics and Social Studies, Media Literacy, STEM, English, Arts & Culture, Lessons and Activities give you the toolkit you need. to work with students. 

KQED's Above the Noise Collection:

• Above the Noise Collection: Cutting Through The Hype: A collection of video prompts to disucss current issues of interest with teens. Above the Noise host Myles Bess takes viewers along on his journey to cut through the hype surrounding controversial topics in the news to find out what's really going on. Topics are updated regularly and address what teens are hearing about and give them ways to engage, think critically, and consider issues of the day that have meaning for them. 
• A Few Suggested Discussion Questions in Discussing Government: 
• What goes into peaceful transition of government look like? Why is it important?
• What is peaceful protest? What are ways to express differences in our system?
• What is importance of facts vs. hearsay?
• Why is freedom of the press, assembly, speech, so important? What responsibilities go with those rights?
• Why is discussion, problem-solving, and compromise important in making progress in making laws and policies.
• What is democracy, republic, authoritarian government?
• What powers does the U.S. Constitution provide to the people and each branch of government to balance powers and avoid any part of the government becoming too powerful?
• How does the use of social media improve free speech and assembly? How is it an echo chamber?
• Explain sections of the Constitution referenced in the news and responsibilities with each right. Discuss: What are citizen rights and responsibilities? What are responsibilitie of elected officials? How do we solve disagreements? How do we advocate?
• For young students talking about how we make decisions, disagree and compromise. Also answering questions they have about events
• How is freedom of the press important in our country? How would life be different if all of the news we received was controlled and run by our government? What are examples of countries where that is the case and how does it impact their lives?