Books and Activities That Teach Kids Resilience

Resilience: The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

What I have come to learn after enduring tragedy is that there is a very clear distinction — there is no moving on, but there is moving forward. You can recover from the hard times you’ve faced.

It seemed impossible to me at first. However, in choosing kindness and compassion — even in the face of darkness and evil — and in reading and writing about those themes with my students, we found that what seemed insurmountable wasn’t. Here is how we used literacy, creativity, and generosity and came out on the other side.

When my students and I returned to our new school in January of 2013, after the tragic events that took place at our school (Sandy Hook Elementary) on December 14, 2012, so much had changed. There was so much pain and yet I knew we had to move forward. I was desperately searching for a way to get our control back, to make sure that the actions of a monster would not come to define us. It seemed incredibly overwhelming and daunting.

And then two things happened. The first was the overwhelming number of gifts that were sent to us. New boxes arrived daily. My students received everything from toys to stuffed animals, class parties, recess games, and more! While my students were beyond deserving, and it was so uplifting to see the joy on their faces, I realized that I needed to take the teachable moment and teach my kids that in life when you get, you also have to give. When someone does something for you, you must do for someone else.

While we were discussing the class that we were going to help, we also read lots of books with the themes of empathy, compassion, and kindness. Each book highlighted for my students that their actions matter, and that helping others is each of our responsibility. So that’s exactly what we did — we reached out to a class in Tennessee and we mailed them a MimioTeach™ interactive whiteboard for their classroom. My students were able to give because of all that they had received. They were able to feel connected, compassionate, and empathetic. They were able to get a little piece of their joy back.

The second thing that happened was that my college professor contacted me to ask how he could help. He is an accomplished author and runs a writing project in many different local elementary schools. He wanted to know if he could come and write with us. His idea was to co-teach together and ultimately write a class story. I jumped at the opportunity. My kids were thrilled at the chance to write with a ‘real author’ and to create a book together! Once again, it brought them (and me) pure joy.

Those two opportunities — giving back and sharing our story — made a world of difference. In helping others, and expressing ourselves, we got our control back. We came out the other side.

If you are interested in doing similar activities that explore empathy, compassion, and kindness with your children or elementary students, below are books I would highly recommend:

Boxes for Katje

by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Stacey Dressen-McQueen