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 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 on their feelings about grief and their special person. 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 them later.

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You will need:

• A straw (of any material)
• Coloured pencils
• Paper
• Scissors
• Glue or tape

Instructions:

1. Take your sheet of paper and draw out a rocket shape similar to our template above, and decorate it however you like.

2. While decorating the front of the rocket, you could talk or think about how your special person who has died, and maybe about how you have been feeling today.

3. While you’re talking or thinking, you can create the body of the rocket. Take your straw and roll a thin strip of paper around it – not too tight as you need to be able to get the straw back inside the tube for take-off!

4. Tape the roll of paper together to secure the thin tube and remove the straw. 

5. When you have decorated your rocket, ask an adult to help you cut it out.

6. Next, secure the rocket shape to the tube you’ve created using glue or a piece of tape.

7. Take your straw and place it in the tube part of the rocket…

8. Now, you can blow through the straw and watch your rocket take off!

9. If you make more than one, you could play a game to see which 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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Our short animated film aims to help children and young people cope with difficult feelings like sadness, anger, worry and guilt.