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Happy Veterans Day!

On November 11, the country will take extra time out of their busy schedules to remember those who put their lives on the line for the nation's freedom. This holiday, also known as Veterans Day, began in 1919 when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day. 

This Veterans Day, bring these four interesting lesson plans to the classroom to educate students about the significance of the holiday, as well as the importance in commemorating past and present soldiers in the United States. 

  1. Veteran's Day Story and Comprehension Activities: 

Source: Lesson Plans Page

Grade: 1-4

Lesson: Students will read the book, Granddad Bud: A Veterans Day Story by Sharon Ferry and will be asked to make connections with the characters and real-life scenarios. 

Book Summary: "When a young boy’s great-grandfather comes to his school to talk about Veterans Day, the boy is unsure what to expect. Why exactly do we celebrate Veterans Day – and will his classmates be interested in what Granddad Bud has to say?"

Procedure:

  • Read the book with the class (whole group or small group).
    •  Take a "picture walk", or skim through the pages. Come up with "I Wonder" questions. Or:
    • Look at the cover or read the back cover and come up with predictions or questions.  
    • During reading: Note how each character feels.
    •  How  do you think Granddad Bud felt when he was away from his family on the ship? 
    • How did his wife feel? Why?
    • How does the boy feel at the beginning of the story? How do his feelings change by the end?
  • Other questions about the book:
    • Why did Americans first start celebrating Veterans Day?
    • What are some ways we honor veterans on Veterans Day? Use information from the story.
    • How does the boy feel when his Granddad Bud talks about the war at family parties?

 

  1. Veterans Day is Celebrated in the United States Today:

Source: ReadWriteThink

Grade: 3-12

Lesson: Students will write biographical poems about a soldier by completing these following lines of the poem provided.

Procedure:

  • Line One: Soldier
  • Line Two: Four words describing what a soldier is expected to do (teachers can specify that the words be adjectives, etc.)
  • Line Three: Who feels...
  • Line Four: Who needs...
  • Line Five: Who fears...
  • Line Six: Who loves...
  • Line Seven: Who thinks...
  • Line Eight: Who believes...
  • Line Nine: Synonym for "soldier"

Resources:

 

  1. Picturing America: The Veteran in a New Field

Source: About Education 

Grade: 6-10

Lesson: In this lesson plan, students will learn how to describe, analyze,  and interpret a painting by observing "The Veteran in a New Field" by Winslow Homer. 

Picturing America is a K-12 teaching tool created by the National Endowment for the Humanities that consists of 40 images of paintings, sculptures, and drawings that represent U.S. History. This one installment, however, focuses on veterans and their return from the Civil War in 1865. Teachers can access the full Pilot Resource Book here for Picturing America. 

Procedure: 

  • Students will begin by looking at the photo and noting its characteristics and subject. 
  • They can then read the individual chapter for Winslow Homer, The Veteran in a New Field, 1865 available here.
  • Teachers can then lead students in the following discussion. The answers will be in italics:

 

Describe and Analyze:

  • What is the man doing? He is cutting wheat.
  • How do we know? He holds a scythe and there is cut wheat around him. 
  • Call students' attention to the light and shadows on the man. Where is the sun? It is high and to his right. 
  • How do you think the man feels in this sun? He is probably hot and tired. 
  • How do we know? He's working so hard in the sun that he has taken his jacket off. 
  • Describe how Homer divided the scene in this painting. He divided it into three strips of color with a band of sky, a wider band of standing wheat, and another band of cut wheat. 
  • In what bands are the man's feet? They are buried in the cut wheat. 
  • In what band is his body? Standing wheat. 
  • Where is the top of his head? It is in the sky. 

Interpret:

  • Of what war was this man a veteran? He was a veteran of the Civil War.
  • How does Homer show us this? His military uniform jacket and canteen lie in the lower right corner.
  • What might laying aside his uniform represent? He has set aside soldiering and returned to regular life.
  • Why is this a new field for him? It may be literally a new field of grain, but it is also a new field of work for him after fighting for years.
  • If this man had been in a grain field the previous year, what would he probably have been doing? Probably fighting a battle, since a number of Civil War battles were fought in grain fields.
  • What subjects had Winslow Homer been sketching for the past few years? He had been sketching Civil War soldiers.
  • What does a figure carrying a scythe usually symbolize? He symbolizes the grim reaper or death.
  • Whose deaths might Homer be alluding to? He is alluding to dead soldiers and/or President Lincoln, who had been assassinated earlier that year.
  • Previously, the veteran cut down soldiers in a field; now he cuts wheat. What might a bountiful field of wheat represent? It could symbolize hope, bounty, and the renewal of life.
  • Because a seemingly dead seed buried in the ground rises as a new plant, grain can be a symbol of rebirth or new beginnings. What might this suggest about the country after the Civil War? It could suggest that the country will recover and flourish.

 

  1. Letters to Soldiers:

Source: Lesson Plans Page

Grade: 7-10

Lesson: Students will write letters to soldiers and apply critical thinking. 

Procedure:

At the start of the class, students write about:

  • When is war ever good or justified?
  • What reasons are there for war? 
  • If they were President, what circumstances would there be to declare war.
  • Answers are put on a transparency and discussed. Voted on?
  • How does a President declare war?
  • What are the consequences of war? (Possible answers: death of soldiers, usually youth, on both sides, death of innocent civilians, cost)
  • How do they feel about the current war(s)? Why?

Then we discuss the letter they are going to write:

  • They will write it twice. A first draft and the final letter.
  • In the letter they will include:
    • Name and grade. (Age need not be mentioned.)
    • The date
    • School, location, and class
    • Sign the letter
  • They write their ideas or feelings about:
    • School
    • TV/movies
    • Sports
    • Music
    • Thoughts about family or neighborhood
  • Ask the class what can we thank soldiers for or say to them: (Possible answers: for their service and what they’re doing: their sacrifice, the risk, the fact that they’re away from their family, hope they return safely, etc.)

 

Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor