November is jam-packed with turkeys, Thanksgiving, thankful thoughts, and end of the trimester assessments. In the past, I have crammed Veterans Day into an quick afternoon or slipped a quick overview activity. Well, after visiting the Normandy Coast and seeing an moving poppy installation at the Tower of London a few years ago, I can no longer let this holiday slip by without paying a committed tribute to our veterans. On that note, I am dedicating a precious November day to celebrating all of those brave men and women who have served (and continue to serve) our country. Here is a quick look at the run down that I just loaded into my lesson plans.
The day will start with a story on the carpet. I always start with a non-fiction book that helps introduce Veterans Day, why it’s important that we remember these men and women, and all of the associated vocabulary words. There are SO many wonderful book to choose from and I will be reading a handful of them throughout our themed day. Here’s a stellar list of veteran/soldier themed picture books from the Texas Mom Blogger.
As we transition into group time, centers will be veteran/soldier themed. I always have my teaching assistant host a vocabulary review and work on veteran themed flip books. Not only will the kids be revisiting important vocabulary, but they also will use the words in context. Adding a sentence writing element to vocabulary books always gets two birds with one BIG stone.
A mommy helper will man a camouflage hunt the room activity during group time. We will be rolling with this template sight word style as my sweeties still need practice reading and spelling some of those tricky ones. Now, I have been stood up a time or two in the helper department and have run with this independently or have bumped it to an afternoon transition activity. As you know, it all depends on the crew that you have and what they can handle 😉
In my group, we will be reading the wonderful Veterans Day mini book from Class of Kinders. This reader is a PERFECT introduction for our K-1 babes and it works oh so well buddy style. It even has a follow up question page that you can toss into the mix.
After groups, the crew will write and design a card to send to a veteran. I will be dropping these of with our local vet group as soon as the babes finish them up (hopefully on Tuesday)! My guess is this one will leak over until the post-lunch period. That’s a-okay with me as we want these to be beautiful 🙂
Our math block is going to be stellar. The queen of all that is amazing with arithmetic . . . Ms. Reagan Tunstall . . . has created the most delightful math ditties to go with Veterans Day. Have you seen her Veterans Day pack? Uh, it will blow your mind (just like all of her products). We will be running her themed word problems as a whole class. Then, we will be transitioning into small groups so we can play the awesome games she has hiding in this collection – skip counting, place value work, and related numbers. ALL of these great hands-on activities hit what we have been covering these past few weeks . . . did you read our minds, Reagan??
Writing will take on a new flavor during our Veteran themed day. I always like to parlay the military hero concept into a reflective write that gets kids thinking about ways that they could be heroes. I wanted buy-in with this one, so I came up with a neat craft to house the write . . . wearable dog tags. Yup. It’s wearable work at it’s finest! This is always a class favorite and they can’t wait to wear them home.
Before we jet for the day, our big buddies come in the afternoon and we do a little craftivity. After all of the discussions highlighting veterans, it only seems fitting to launch into the freedom connection. After all . . . our military has worked tirelessly to ensure that we maintain our right to be free.
Alright, so there you have it. Our Veterans Day studies in a nutshell. It’s going to be a day jam packed with learning and celebrating American Heroes. All of these activities are easy to run with on your own. However, if you are looking for a print and go collection, check out my packet HERE. It contains all of the ideas you read about above and more.
As I exit, I leave you with images from our European trip that inspired me to slow my roll and spend some dedicated time to honoring the selfless men and women that have fought and continue to fight for our freedom. I was so moved by all of the battle grounds along the Normandy Coast. From Utah and Omaha Beaches to Sainte-Mère-Église (The Longest Day) and Point du Hoc, I was in tears much of the time. Thank you veterans and soldiers . . . from the bottom of my heart.
Wow! Amazing pictures! My grandfather is a World War II veteran and loves to share stories about his time in the war. I would love to see those places in person. Thanks for sharing about your day.