I love having school on holidays like Columbus Day, Veteran’s Day, and President’s Day. Why – because it gives a wonderful opportunity to teach my students about these important holidays and why we celebrate them. There are so many great ways to help your students learn the importance of the holiday while helping Veterans too! Today I’m going to share some Veteran’s Day activities for elementary students with you.
The Importance of Teaching Veteran’s Day
Veteran’s Day is celebrated every year on November 11th. I am so incredibly grateful for the veterans of the United States Armed Forces. Their sacrifice so that we can live in a free country, generally safe from harm’s way, is not meaningless to me.
I always want to be sure and pass that message along to my students so they can learn the importance of sacrifice and dedication at an early age. Veteran’s Day is the perfect opportunity to teach your students about what a veteran is and how to show appreciation to our nations’ finest.
Veteran’s Day Teaching Resources
There are tons of different Veteran’s Day activities for elementary students that you can incorporate into your classroom. I love to use a mix of different activities to really get the kids excited about learning. Videos, lessons, and hands-on activities are a great way to do this. Here’s some of my favorite Veteran’s Day activities for elementary students.
1. Videos & Visitors
Videos are a great way to increase student engagement. This short PBS Kids video is a wonderful video that provides a good introduction of Veteran’s Day in a way that easy for students to understand. It covers what Veteran’s Day is and why we celebrate it when we do.
Since veterans are real live people, inviting veterans to your classroom or school on this day is a great way to help students connect this holiday with real life. Student’s love to meet real life heroes and having a veteran in your class gives students opportunities for learning how to respectfully thank a veteran for their service. This also makes the topic so much more relatable for your students! You likely even have a student whose parent or relative is a veteran and would love to share their experiences with your class.
2. Lessons
When teaching about Veteran’s Day there are several main points that you want to cover. I like to include the following topics:
- what is a veteran
- when is Veteran’s Day
- what are the branches of the armed forces
- how can we celebrate our heroes
As with most social studies and science lessons, I love using interactive notebooks. These engaging tools really help students to engage with the information taught and remember what they learn.
This Veteran’s Day flip book is a wonderful way to teach about this important holiday. Students will complete the information on each page of the flip book as they learn about the Veteran’s Day holiday. This flip book contains 5 tabs which cover everything your students need to know about Veteran’s Day:
1. Veterans Day
2. What is a Veteran?
3. What is Veterans Day?
4. How Can We Remember?
5. The 4 Main Branches of the Armed Forces
Your students will not only love creating this informational flip book, but they will enjoy sharing what they learned with their family too!
3. Veteran’s Day Activities
One of the special things about Veteran’s Day is that there are many opportunities we can provide students to thank a veteran. One of my favorite activities is making cards for veterans. This not only provides so creative fun, but this writing activity is a great way to connect language arts and social studies standards.
In addition to writing a note or card, students can also do a service project for a local veteran organization.
Veteran’s Day Activities for Elementary Students
I’ve taken all of my favorite Veteran’s Day activities for elementary students and put them into one resource. Now you can have everything you need to teach about and celebrate Veteran’s Day in your classroom. Check out these No Prep Veteran’s Day Activities for elementary school students in the Appletastic Learning store.
ALL Profits from this Veterans Day Packet will be donated to the LEEK Preserve, where our disabled veterans are helped and encouraged through the healing process through outdoor hunting, fishing, and recreational experiences. Our country’s veterans deserve to know they are appreciated and loved. Click HERE to read more about the LEEK Preserve.
Looking for More Seasonal Learning?
If you love connecting your classroom learning to the seasons or holidays then you must check out these other posts. Here are many seasonal activities for November and December that will engage your students while still keeping them focused on the important skills and standards they need.
- Thanksgiving Printables for Kids
- Project Based Learning for Thanksgiving
- Thanksgiving Descriptive Writing Activities
- Christmas Activities for Elementary Kids
- Math Activities for Christmas
- Christmas Writing Prompts
- Tree STEM Challenge for Christmas
- Christmas Holiday Resources for the Elementary Classroom
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