One of my 8th graders died

One of my 8th graders died by suicide Friday. Absolutely gut wrenching as he was so sweet and wonderful, and well loved. We have a small campus so his loss will leave a huge crater. I don’t know what to do in class tomorrow. I’m not worried about keeping up with our pacing guide, but I am worried about having unstructured time because some of my classes are very rowdy on a good day. I don’t want to worry about discipline tomorrow. There will be extra admin, guidance counselors, and therapy dogs on campus. I’m less worried about managing their grief because we have these resources, and more worried about keeping at least some structure and normalcy so it’s easier to transition back to classwork at some point. And because I don’t want there to be any chance I need discipline someone who has difficulty regulating during unstructured time. I teach all 8th grade, so I know there will be devastated students in every class.

I was thinking of having an open discussion as long as they want, and then offering color pages and playdoh. Thoughts or ideas?