Tania A., grade five.

Jeff Broome

Last year, the school where I work temporarily ceased operations, and I took shelter with my family in preparation for the landfall of Hurricane Idalia. During the same semester that Idalia wreaked havoc on North Florida, other communities across the globe experienced devastation from a variety of natural disasters: Morocco was hit with a deadly earthquake, wildfires ravaged Hawaii, parts of Libya were overwhelmed with flooding, and citizens of Iceland evacuated in preparation for a volcanic eruption.
Having experienced multiple hurricanes while residing in Florida, I knew that these communities required sustained care, but I suspected that the rapid news cycle would quickly shift its attention to new headline-grabbing incidents elsewhere. This spurred me to recall an elementary art unit that I taught years ago on the topic of natural disasters. I wondered how I could update my unit to address contemporary concerns and foster empathy in students for people experiencing environmental catastrophes.

Reflecting on Current Events
I began the unit with conversations about recent events involving natural disasters and focused on students’ experiences with large-scale weather emergencies. We made a chart of all the natural disasters we could name and distinguished between tragedies caused by humankind and those caused by natural weather events—although the lines that separate them are sometimes blurry.

Rachel B., grade five.

Denis R., grade five.

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