tsunami

It's hard to know how kids are going to be impacted by this week's natural disaster in southeast Asia. Maybe they were too distracted with Christmas, new toys, and vacation to even notice. Or maybe they saw the videos over and over again on CNN because they happened to be home. On the chance that the subject might come up in a classroom, I offer these two sites for kids, both meant to help them understand how tsunamis happen.

The first - from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who maintain a great site for kids. This information, in storybook format, is based on the tsunamis that hit Hawaii. It explains what a tsunami is and leads the reader through the warning procedure that's in place in countries bordering the Pacific. The illustrations are very kid-friendly. As well as explaining this natural occurance, this might serve to reassure some of those kids who we know are worriers. Tsumani Warning at http://www.fema.gov/kids/tsunami_w.htm.

This next one is from a PBS site. It has a three-part animated clip that shows how the ocean floor can shift causing the water above to do the same and then materialize into a tsunami as it gets closer to shore. This animation can be replayed as you explain how the tsunami happened. The site - Savage Earth-Waves of Destruction found at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/animations/tsunami/index.html