MerriNews April - May 2023 Volume. 31 | Page 11

Stories for kinder kids affected by floods

When floods ravaged North Eastern Victoria in October 2022 , many children experienced devastating impacts including :
• evacuating their homes with their families
• seeing their kindergarten services destroyed by flood waters
• their kindergarten closed for safety reasons
• seeing unusual activities such as emergency services in the streets and sandbagging .
To help children cope , we developed social stories and resources for kindergarten children , their families and their teachers .
Written in simple language with pictures , social stories explain situations and give children coping strategies to help them make sense of challenging feelings and experiences .
We also developed a tip sheet to parents to talk to their children about the floods .
The resources were distributed to kindergartens in the Goulburn region and Ovens Murray region ; and shared to reach broader regions of Victoria and Southern New South Wales .
Families have embraced the resources and given overwhelmingly positive feedback .
Aftermath of the floods damaged local kindergarten ’ s playground and equipment
MerriNews April – May 2023 | 11 .