Happy Veteran's Day!

Happy Veteran's Day everyone! 

Yesterday we were busy learning about Veteran's day and spending time honoring one of my favorite people.

Unlike most schools (who had a glorious four day weekend) our school was in session yesterday. So since we were together the day before an important holiday, I decided to take advantage of our time and share lots of background knowledge with my students to help them really understand and appreciate veterans.

After hopping on over to TPT and downloading a few freebies, (thankfully there were so many great choices) I had a hard time narrowing it down to what I could use in one day.

I loved the unit by Lauren Lynes and used her Veterans Day Freebie to help organize our thoughts about veterans. I also used the unit created by Jessica Hawkins which includes the poem shown below as well as the template for illustrating a Veteran's Day thank you note & picture. You can check it out Here

Both this informational piece and the poem were awesome resources to open up a conversation. 

One of our themes this year is character in 2nd/3rd grade and we have spent a lot of time focusing on being "caught with good character." 

We started our discussion about veterans by brainstorming different character traits that can be used to describe our vets.
I think the kids came up with some pretty creative and sweet descriptions.

We also used this graphic organizer to help us describe them.

And lastly, I thought it would be great to send some love and appreciation to a veteran I know :) 

I had all of my students illustrate cards for my cousin Robert. He is a Sergeant in the Marine Corps.
I don't think he reads my blog so I'm pretty sure its safe to post this- we are surprising him by sending him these cards in the mail. 

They will arrive after Veteran's Day, but it's the thought that counts right?

Isn't this one sweet? This little kindergartener drew a picture of herself with my cousin (who she has never met), pretty adorable.

And lastly, I thought I'd share a card made by one of my 3rd grade students. She wrote: "Thank you, for being our hero and fighting for our country and being focused and curteous and for having faith for the U.S.A."

From the mouths of babes, I tell ya!

 Have a fantastic Veteran's day folks!