Grief Worksheets

Core Standard

Grief is the bodies natural response to experience a death or major loss that we will almost all suffer over the course of our lives. This can elicit extreme reactions and emotions for children. We cannot protect children from this feeling of loss, but we can help them form healthy coping skills that can see them through the course of the emotional roller coaster that they will go through. Most children are, to some level, aware of the concept of death, but are often not prepared to cope with loss of a loved one. Everyone copes differently. Sometimes it manifests as a physical reaction where their chest tightens, stomachs become upset, intense crying, or a relentless nervousness. The concept of regrets and worry becomes heightened. Strong emotions seem to come out of nowhere. This selection of grief worksheets will help learn to approach some coping skills that will serve students well when they are confronted with a situation where they may grieve.

Grief Worksheets:

Sentence Completion - These are a series of thoughts that will help students bring to words what they are feeling during a period of grief

Someone I Love - Use the worksheet to share things about the person that you lost.

The Stages - Describe what your experience has been with each stage of grief.

What I Need - When you are grieving, you may need special support from the people in your life. It is okay to ask for help. What do you need the most right now?

My Memory Box - A memory box is a place to keep special memories of the person that you lost. Collecting these memories can help you to cope with your loss. Your memory box can hold object that remind you of that person, letters you write to them, or notes you make about things that you remember about them. What would you put in your memory box?

Picture It - Draw a picture of your favorite memory of the person you lost.

Losing Someone - When someone you love dies, many changes take place in your life. What are some things that have changed in your life?

Things Will Be Different - Ask your counselor to help you think of positive ways that you can cope with these changes.

Goodbye Letter - A prompted to sharing what you would have said, if you could have.

Bear Thoughts - This is a great conversation starter for your classes in a down mood time.

In Memory - This is a slightly different approach.

How Do You Grieve? - Everybody grieves in different ways. You may also grieve in more than one way. Below are some things that people commonly do to grieve after someone that they love has died. Circle the things that you have done or feel like you would like to do as a way to express your sadness and pain.

The Ladder - List the thoughts and behaviors that you are experiencing as you move through the five stages of grief.

My Plan - Identify ways that you can cope with your grief and loss.

My Loved One - Something we used to do together is.

How to Help a Student Deal with Grief


Over the course of a long teaching career, you will most likely be confronted with student or entire class situation where your students will be confronted with a major loss. Trying to make sense of how to approach your kids will be a bit foreign at first. There are a number of different techniques that you can use. It is often a great idea for the teacher to meet with grief counselor prior to that first class. There may be specific circumstances or techniques that they may be able to make you aware of. If that is not possible, learn as much as you can about the situation. Which students had a great deal of interaction with this person or people that were close to them. It will give you a great deal of insight as how to handle the circumstances.


It often starts best by listening and acknowledging feelings. Your goal here is not to be judgmental and be supportive. Once you have listened, it is often very helpful for all students if you express your own feelings in a clam manner to encourage other students to do the same. Remember to express that death is common and this is something they will see again over the course of their lives. Provide all students an opportunity to talk and be very encouraging of this. Do not pressure students to talk, but subtly suggest it. The more they talk, the better they will be able to cope.


When a death affects an entire school community it is often more difficult. If a faculty member or student passes make sure to find out all the facts. You then want to share those facts with students. This will dispel rumors. The level of your discussion depends on the maturity level of your group. The younger the child, the more concrete that you will need to be with your language. Younger students will need to understand how this happened. Older students will need to talk more.


Where do you begin to help bring your students back to feeling normal again? Students will have difficulty concentrating after experiencing grief. Your plans for your classroom should reflect this. It is often important to keep your normal routine in place. Kids thrive on consistence; it will help them to return to normal quicker. That is within in reason, if you had a unit test scheduled, you will want to push that aside and set a slightly different schedule that accommodates your students.