Never Too Young to Grieve Activities

Download our activities for children under five

These activities and resources are intended to be used alongside our publication, Never Too Young To Grieve, to help support bereaved children under five. They include activity ideas and suggestions for school lessons.

Winston’s Wish and Child Bereavement UK have come together and are now one unified charity: Child Bereavement UK. These resources carry our previous branding, but the information is up to date and remains fully relevant. We’re currently updating our branding, and new versions will be available soon.

Buy Never Too Young To Grieve

Making Ooglies

View our activity on making Ooglies with your young children to help them talk about their feelings.

Memory box

View our step-by-step guide to making a memory box for children to keep photos, letters and treasured items.

Memory lantern

Download our instructions on making a memory lantern to help young children remember the person who has died.

Lesson plan: Dead or Alive

Download our lesson plan on using nature to help young children understand the difference between dead and alive.

Lesson plan: Remembering

Download our lesson plan to help children think about how their life has changed, who they now live with and who they remember who has died.

Latest

Navigating the summer holidays: Tips from widowed parents

Our friends at WAY Widowed and Young share advice from their members about how they cope with the summer holidays as widowed parents.
Ben and George: Parenting a grieving child while grieving yourself

Ben talks about how Child Bereavement UK supported him and his four-year-old son George, when his wife and unborn son died suddenly in March 2021.
Explaining a death in service to children and young people

Our Bereavement Support Team provide advice on how to explain a death in service to children and young people.
Five ways to manage grief in the summer holidays

For bereaved families the holidays can be difficult, but here are five ways to help you and your children manage grief in the summer holidays.

Supporting bereaved children and young people

Children and young people grieve just as much as adults but they can show it in different ways. Find out how you can help them and more about child grieving.
Children's understanding of death at different ages

Guidance on children's understanding of death at different ages and stages of development.
Explaining to a child that someone has died

Guidance on explaining to a child that someone has died.
Explaining death and dying to children

Guidance for teachers and parents on talking to children about death and dying,
Grieving for a child

No parent expects to face the death of their child. See our resource for support and guidance on grieving for a child.
When a grandparent dies

The death of a grandparent is often a child or young person’s first encounter with the death of someone important. Parents have a great deal to manage when their own parent or carer dies.
Contact us

Contact details for our Helpline, departments and services.
Child Bereavement UK training

Child Bereavement UK designs and delivers training for professionals in health and social care, education, the emergency services and the voluntary and corporate sectors, equipping them to provide the best possible care to bereaved families.
Adults bereaved as children

How being bereaved as a child can affect your life as an adult and where you can find support.
When your baby dies

When a baby lives only a short time or dies before birth due to miscarriage, SUDIC, stillbirth or a painful decision to end the pregnancy, people may assume that the loss is not important. This is simply not the case.