With the start of a new school year arriving just days before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Department of Education unveiled a new classroom curriculum last week to help students understand the history and emotional weight of the event.

The curriculum, developed by the DOE and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, includes lesson plans for each age group and classroom materials that teachers can download off the DOE’s website.

“The 10th anniversary will be an emotional, difficult time for many New Yorkers, so it’s important that our students understand what happened that day,” said Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott. “With the help of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, we’ve created a guide to discussing these events with students in a meaningful way that is also academically rigorous.”

Lessons focus on subjects like the history of the towers, the efforts of the first responders and how the city has since memorialized the tragedy. Kindergarteners, for example, can learn about the Search and Rescue Dogs that helped sort through the Ground Zero rubble in a lesson called “Furry Heroes.”

Schools will also have access to special counseling resources should students or staff members need it, the DOE said.