Teaching Kids About Veterans Day
Teaching students about Veterans Day is so important in the primary classroom! In November, I always incorporated some meaningful Veterans Day activities into our lesson plan to help my students understand this holiday. If you’re looking for age-appropriate ways to cover this topic in your room, keep reading to learn about some great activities you can use in your classroom!
What is Veterans Day?
Veterans Day is a federal holiday in the United States observed each year on November 11, for honoring military veterans of the United States Armed Forces. It’s different from Memorial Day, in that it honors veterans both living and deceased. When we first begin learning about this holiday, I like to chat with students about the different patriotic holidays we observe including Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Patriot Day, and Independence Day. To first graders, these holidays might seem pretty similar, but in actuality – they are all unique. I like to compare and contrast these holidays in a group discussion with my kiddos before we take a deep dive into Veterans Day so that they aren’t confused about which holiday we’re exploring.
Why Is It Important To Teach Kids About Veterans Day?
I think this is such an important topic to cover with young students to create awareness about our U.S. Armed Forces. Young children may have little understanding of the branches of the military and how they protect our nation. Just as we teach about community helpers in pre-k and kindergarten, teaching about Veterans Day in the primary grades allows teachers an opportunity to educate students on people in the community who help us in many ways.
I also think that this topic allows us to teach gratitude, an important theme in November. As students begin to understand everything that the Armed Forces do for the United States of America, they can then begin to understand why it’s important to recognize these people for a job well done. Lastly, this topic is engaging for students! Children in the primary grades are very interested in the world around them. Learning about a holiday they may have never heard of before is a fun activity for everyone!
Introducing Veterans Day to Kids
The best way to begin your studies of Veterans Day is with a fantastic introduction! I’m a big fan of using interesting read-alouds in the classroom for this purpose. I like to read aloud and then pause to recap what we read and discuss as a group. This is such a great community-building opportunity for the primary classroom and sets the stage for your lessons. Here are a few of my favorite books on Veterans Day:
- Why Do We Celebrate Veterans Day? By Grace Houser
- Veterans – Heros in our Neighborhood by Valerie Pfundstein
- Hero Mom by Melinda Hardin
- Hero Dad by Melinda Hardin
There are many other great titles out there and I suggest taking a trip to your local library to see if you can find any good ones to share. Other great topics to look for are books that explore different military branches. If you can find any with real pictures, these are especially interesting to primary students! They will enjoy looking at the slight differences in military uniforms among the branches. In the past, I printed out pictures of military personnel in uniform from each branch. The kids loved looking closely at these and comparing each one.
Veterans Day Lessons
After our introduction, we dive into some engaging activities to continue learning! In my room, I used a blend of printable and digital activities to teach students all about Veterans Day.
Veterans Day Vocabulary & Reading
Learning new vocabulary words is a great place to start! I used word cards that also included definitions to cover some important new words for this holiday. The words we focused on were things like service, honor, veteran, and all of the branches of the military. I liked to read through each of these cards and then display them in a pocket chart for later reference. If you printed out pictures of military personnel in uniform, display those too! These are great to review throughout your lessons as well since many of the military branches can seem similar to students.
I also love using mini-readers to explore a new topic and Veterans Day is no different! I have two different little book versions inside my Veterans Day Unit. One that is simplified and one with a bit more text and details. They each provide a general overview of the holiday and include a bit of history as well. These are great to read through as a group with your students as they color each page. I have them save these mini-books throughout our study as a point of reference for other activities.
After reading, we also make a large timeline of the history of Veterans Day together on the board. Then students fill in their own mini timeline worksheet to match. This is a great activity to follow up the mini readers with to help cement what you have learned. I’ve also included a quiz that you can give orally, or have students fill out to test their comprehension of everything you covered in the unit! All of these resources used together are so helpful when it comes to making sure that students truly understand the reason for Veterans Day and its history!
Veterans Day Writing
Writing is a great way to facilitate deeper reading comprehension and retention. For this reason, we use a variety of graphic organizers and writing prompts to collect information and reflect on what we’ve learned. Inside my Veterans Day Activity Unit, you’ll find:
- Veterans Day Facts Chart
- Can/Have/Are Graphic Organizer
- Blank Writing Paper
- Coloring Pages & Clip Art Tags
After reading, I work with the students to have them collect some facts and information for the chart and organizer. I encourage them to use their little books and look at the vocabulary cards to help them decide what to include. After they have organized their thoughts, they write a few sentences about some interesting facts they learned. Finally, everyone loves coloring the cute clip art tags and coloring pages to finish this part of our lessons! If we have any extra coloring pages, I usually send them home the day before Veterans Day for the kids to work on at home while they’re off.
Engaging Center Activities
Since this topic is so engaging, I created some fun-themed center activities too! These math and literacy centers are perfect to incorporate into your class time as you learn about Veterans Day. Not only do they use a fun, patriotic theme, but they focus on key first grade learning topics as well! The center games included are:
- Veterans Day Spin and Tally
- Veterans Day Graphing & Data Interpretation
- Veteran’s Day Word Searches
- Veteran’s Day Memory Game
I’ve also included answer keys too, so help make grading simple and easy! I like to use them all the day before Veterans Day. Students will move from station to station and complete an activity at each one. The memory game is always a favorite! I usually have students play in small groups for that one. All of the other activities are to be completed independently. I also like to mix in some digital centers too, more on that below…
Digital Activities
Did I mention that all of these fun Veterans Day activities are also available in digital format? Inside my Veterans Day Activities resource, you get both printable and digital options! These couldn’t be easier to use as all you need to do is open them in Google Slides. I love having this option because I can use the informational slides on the interactive whiteboard to help educate my group at the beginning of the lessons. Then, I assign the center activities and writing prompts to individual students. You’ll also find some links to great educational videos in this unit that are perfect for giving students even more information about this holiday.
Teacher Tip: If you’re not a 1:1 campus, don’t worry – these can still work well in your room! You can use these as partner games during center time for technology integration. Just set up a couple of kiddos and have them work through the activities together. And of course, these make a great option for those of you using a distance learning format or who like to assign digital homework!
Veteran’s Day No-Prep Activities
I’ve got one more fun activity for you to add to your Veterans Day lesson plan… no-prep color by code pages! I love using these in my room because they are so versatile. Whenever we have a few extra minutes to fill, they come to my rescue! If I need an instant center activity, I’m covered! Fast finishers? No problem! These pages come in handy every day in my classroom.
Inside the Veterans Day Color by Code Bundle, you’ll find 28 pages of no-prep addition and subtraction pages. These cover facts within 10 and facts within 20, so you’ll have plenty of options to easily differentiate for your group. Plus, everyone will love the Veterans Day themed pictures! Use them throughout the week as you learn about Veterans Day, or send them home as homework activities. You can even grab a free sample here if you’d like to take a peek at what to expect!
Start Exploring with Your Students
I hope you found lots of ideas you can add to your Veterans Day lesson plans. This is such an important topic to cover! As you explore the different branches of the military and all they do for our nation, I know your students will begin to understand just how much we have to thank our Veterans for! You can find all of these fun activities and lessons in my TPT shop. Be sure to take a look at the printable and digital bundle to offer the most flexibility in your lessons for this topic!
Save These Veterans Day Activities
Don’t forget to pin these Veterans Day activities on Pinterest so that you can come back to them when you’re ready to start planning!
