Remember that every time a child sees a repeated image on television, for them it is a new occurrence. Imagine the fear if you see bombs going off at the end of every race anyone has ever run.
What will happen on the playground? What does a race or game of tag become? Limit your gathering of news at times when young children are not playing in the same area as the television tuned to senseless violence played over and over again.
Our middle schoolers will once again have to process the twin towers in New York City on 9/11, as will all who were impacted by the terrorist attacks of that day in New York, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania.
When they were 3-years-old or so, they built tall block buildings and flew airplanes into them - constructing knowledge - to try to make sense of something even adults could not make sense of.
Watch. Observe. Have races with peaceful endings. If the races turn violent, use the opportunity to write stories or have class meetings. Look for the helpers. How can they be helpers?
With abstract thinkers from elementary schools to colleges and universities, take time to talk, talk, talk. Find the people who are helping. Become helpers to someone, somehow. Make it a gradable project. How does everything you are teaching relate?
