Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Thank a Veteran!

Happy Veteran's Day!  We had a busy day in first grade celebrating our Veterans!

Tuesday, we read a Pebble Go article about veterans to build our background knowledge.

Today, it was all about honoring our Veterans.  I had 2 things I wanted to accomplish today...and we made it...by the hair on our chiny, chin, chin! {Ever had one of THOSE days???  Yep, that was me today!}


Last week, I sent an email to parents asking for any Veterans in our first graders' immediate family.  We spent the morning writing thank you letters {on this Veteran's Day paper!} to the 4 Veterans that were sent to me.  The kids really took a lot of pride in this and so it was a more time consuming project than I thought it would be!

Since we had 4 veterans to write about, each table group was assigned a vet to write to.  And I divided my extra groups up so that about 6 kids wrote for each person.  After we finished the letters, they worked in their group of 6 to make book covers for the letters.  I gave them the green construction paper with a military hat outline on it.  They used tear art to create a camo hat and fancy title letters for their cover!


We also made poppy pins to wear in honor of the sacrifices our Veteran's make for us every day.  We read the history of Flanders Field.  We watched the short video clip of Linus reading the Flanders Field poem. {And by the way, if you've never been to the WWI Museum in Kansas City to see the poppy field display, you've missed out.  One of the more moving things I've seen.}

Then, we made our own poppies!  Here's how...

You will need:
*2 red cupcake wrappers per child
*1-2 inch strips of green construction paper
*paper clip or clothespin
*black crayon

Steps:
1.  Flatten both wrappers.  Cut about 1/2 inch off of one of the wrappers.
2.  Add black "seeds" in the middle of the smaller wrapper.

3.  Glue smaller wrapper to the middle of the larger, uncut wrapper.
4.  Twist the green strip to make a stem.

5.  Hot glue the stem to the back.
6.  Hot glue the paperclip or clothespin on top of the stem.
7.  Attach the pin to your shirt!

So fun and the kids absolutely LOVED wearing these today!  Such a beautiful reminder of the sacrifices that are made each day!  Thank you Veterans!

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