Children may find it difficult to talk about their grief, so we suggest doing a ‘make and talk’ activity to keep them occupied while having a conversation. Bonfire night is a very exciting time for children – fireworks, rockets, sparklers! Everything is brightly coloured and there are lots of activities to get involved with.
This Straw Rocket activity is a simple arts and crafts project that may help your child to have something else to be looking at and creating, while you address some questions or their feelings about grief and their special person.
How our Bonfire Night activity can help you talk to a grieving child
A large part of this activity for the child is colouring in, so you could start a conversation off by asking which colours they would like to use. You could associate some colours with emotions, e.g. yellow for happy, blue for sad, and ask them when they’ve felt those emotions and why.
You might feel comfortable to talk about emotions changing and ‘ups and downs’ when you’re creating your rockets. What goes up must come down! It could be a good opportunity to explain to the child that it’s okay to have days when you don’t feel so good, but equally okay to have good days and still have fun. Reassure them that if they’re feeling down or their emotions are really big, they can talk to you about them and you’re there to listen.
If the child does start to share their feelings and wants to talk to you about their grief, pause the activity if they want to and reassure them that you’re listening to them by keeping eye contact and being aware of your facial expressions and body language. Children might choose the most unpredictable times to open up to you, it might be that an activity works for them but equally they may not be interested in talking to you while they’re colouring.
It can be difficult to be prepared for their questions and answers when children are talking about grief and big emotions. If you don’t know the answer or how to respond, be honest with them and say that you’ll think about it and come back to that later. It’s important to ensure that you do come back to them when you have had time to think of an answer, so that the child trusts that they can come to you with their questions and will get an answer when they can.
Winston’s Wish can help you with those tricky questions. You can call us 08088 020 021 (open 8am-8pm, Monday to Friday), email ask@winstonswish.org or use our live chat.
Make a straw rocket for Bonfire Night
You will need:
- A straw (of any material)
- Coloured pencils
- Paper
- Scissors
- Glue or tape
How to make a Bonfire Night straw rocket
1. Firstly, take your sheet of paper and draw out a rocket shape and ask the child to decorate it however they like.
2. While they’re decorating the front of the rocket, you could start by asking them about how they’re feeling and talk about their special person to see how they react.
3. Cut a strip from the piece of paper wide enough to wrap around your straw a couple of times.
4. Cut your rocket out. Now you have your strip and a rocket.
5. Roll the strip of paper lengthways around the straw (not too tight so that the straw can slide in and out easily).
6. Fasten the roll together with tape leaving about a third without tape.
7. Flatten the untapped end and roll it down, securing it in place with tape.
8. With the open end to the bottom tape the tube to the back of the rocket. Then take your straw and place it in the tube part of the rocket.
10. Ask your child to blow through the straw and watch their rocket take off! If you make more than one, you could play a game to see whose rocket can reach the furthest!
If you’d like to, take a photo and tag us on social media – we’d love to see your rockets!
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