We were out for Veterans Day so we had our lesson Thursday. My Kinders really did not know a lot about the military. I grew up in mostly military communities because my dad was in the Army. I was used to my friends's fathers and my own father being away... deployed. This was especially true during Vietnam. It was sad for us though during those days because you did not want people to call your dad names for fighting in Vietnam so mostly you kept your mouth shut unless you wanted a fight (verbal.) So to my dad and all of those Vets that fought in Vietnam, thank you from the bottom of my heart and I am sorry for what you had to go through when you came home.
That was sad. We knew that our fathers were doing their duty, but in the 60's many people blamed the soldiers. I am sure there wasn't a soldier over there that wouldn't love to be at home in the USA, but they were doing their job.
Anyway, my Kinders had a day love filled thoughts and wishes for all of our military. Some of my Kinders had connection to the military, and I let them share with each other.
My Kinders loved thinking about our Veterans and learning exactly what a Veteran is!
I had talked about the pledge many times since we say it every day. We went over the pledge and why we put our hands over our heart. My Kinders are used to the red dots under a word so we said the pledge word by word.
It is nice to have a kid-friendly poem for Kinders to read that is related to the theme. I used this book from Amazon:
This was a great book for Text Features. I also showed my kinders the correct way to salute. Turns out I had that wrong, my dad would not have been happy!
After the book we made a bubble map of using the word veteran. My little kinders watch so many scary movies, many of them said that they protect us from zombies. I said, well those are not real, those movies are just to scare you. Fiction! We finally came up with some descriptions after going back into the book for Text Evidence!
I had printed out the soldier beforehand but having to lean over and write with a sinus headache I put some of the have's with the are's! This graphic organizer was great for our writing though.
After lunch we did our writing. I used my Veterans Day Writing packet because it involves drawing and coloring as well as writing. This year I am really focusing on the CC standards that say: with prompting and support. I was trying to get kinders to accomplish so much with out really giving them something to start with. We came up with a paragraph that all of us agreed on and I had them copy this on their paper. I did tell them they could come up with some of their own sentences if they wanted. I did stress the writing conventions and our writing rubric.
I love the way they are using their little pointer finger for spaces between words!
During our writing we had a surprise visit from a dad who is a veteran! A marine. I had told them about how marines never leave their buddies behind. It was nice that he came in and talked to us. He also showed us the correct way to salute!
He was really good at using the anchor chart to explain what a soldier wears and then he talked a little about what a solder does. My boys were really interested in the weapons and tanks!
I was so proud of my Kinders for working so hard! And thank you to all the military and their families for the sacrifices they make daily.
This is my packet which includes graphics and a topper! I took off the year so it just says Veterans Day on the writing page!
