How do I talk to my students about the crisis in Ukraine?

How do I talk to my students about the crisis in Ukraine? - image

As the situation in Ukraine continues to escalate you might be finding that your students have questions and wondering how best to answer them.

As you will know by now, at Chameleon PDE we always aim to support teachers where we can and when new situations or crisis hit the headlines, we do our best to react quickly and provide resources for you to use in school.

We’ve just uploaded a free lesson pack containing 5 activities that you can use in tutor time or PSHE lessons. They can all be extended or simplified depending on the age and/or ability of your group and as always, our materials can be edited to best meet your needs.

We know there is a lot of anxiety around and two of the activities look at issues that are likely to be sensitive for some students. There are warnings in the teacher notes to alert you to the activity that looks at the threat of nuclear weapons and the final activity which is focused on mental health.

In addition, there are activities that are more knowledge based including one that introduces students to pre-war Ukraine via a short video. The images used were filmed when I was on holiday in Ukraine last summer. I was struck by how vibrant and creative both Kyiv and Lviv were. At the time I thought I would use some of the photos in a lesson around the global reach of the ‘young high tech and creative industries. There was a real buzz around both cities which I hope comes across in the video.

It’s very sad that these images have been used for an entirely different lesson pack and I hope the ‘postcard from Ukraine’ activity allows students to see and appreciate some of the beauty of Ukraine which is so different from the images that have become so familiar over recent days.

This pack is available to all Chameleon PDE subscribers on either the premium or free pathway. If you have not yet signed up with us, what are you waiting for? It’s, quick, simple, and free and allows you access to all our free resources. https://www.chameleonpde.com/users/sign_up?signup_path=free