Veterans are truly heroic and selfless people, risking their lives, limbs and well being to serve our country and protect peace here and around the world. I am humbled by their bravery and so incredibly grateful for their work. With Veterans Day coming up, we are taking this week to honor our veterans, learn about their jobs, and tell them how much they mean to us through our writing and artwork. To all veterans past and present, we salute you!
–Literacy:
-Patriotic ABC match: I printed a set of patriotic ABCs from Teachers Pay Teachers, laminated them and cut them out. Then I laid out 8-10 capital letters at a time and gave my littles a lowercase letter in turns to match with the capital letter.
-Patriotic word phonics: I made a set of patriotic words with pictures then worked with my 5 year old to touch and say each letter sound in the words to sound them out.
-V is for veteran: I printed these veteran writing practice pages and had my littles practice their letter Vs (my 2 did the larger ones, my 5 did all of them) then color the picture.
-Veteran’s Day early reader: I printed these Veteran’s Day Early Reader books from Teachers Pay Teachers, helped my 5 year old read each page (and then read it to my 2 year old while pointing to each word) then had them color the page until we’d finished the book.
-I’m thankful I’m free to…response page: This activity came with the book in the link above. You just have your little illustrate and/or write what they’re thankful they have the freedom to do here in the United States.
-Writing prompt: Write a story about a soldier or write a nonfiction piece with a page about each branch of the military after reading a book about them in social studies.
-Veteran’s Day book list:
–Math:
-Army men counting: I ordered a set of large army men, then gave my littles flashcards with the numbers 1-10 on them (one card at a time of course) and had them identify the number then count that many army men. I would’ve liked to work with numbers to 20 for my 5 year old, but the men came in sets of 12 unless you order the tiny ones (which I thought would end up all over my house…and they don’t look super fun to step on! LoL)
-Patriotic number ordering: I printed these patriotic number cards from Teachers Pay Teachers then had my 2 year old order 1-10 and my 5 year old continue on with 11-20.
-Veteran’s Day number puzzles: These puzzles from Teach With Me are great- they have the traditional 1-10 (which was perfect for my 2 year old) along with counting backwards from 10 and skip counting by 10 (which I did with my 5 year old).
-Veteran’s Day hidden picture: This was so fun to do! I read off each number to my little (because there are ALOT of them and it would’ve been crazy frustrating for him to keep track on his own) then had him find it on the 100’s chart and color it the appropriate color. If he got stuck, I’d help him find the tens row it was in, then have him find the actual number (ie. for 54 I’d point the 51- the first number in the 50’s row- and have him slide his finger along the row until he found 54). If it’s still frustrating, point to each number for your child while saying it and just have them color it that way- I mean they are only 4 or 5…100 numbers might make their head spin! LoL
-Patriotic number writing: This page came with the above number practice set. I just had my little practice writing the numbers 1-20 in red and blue.
–Social Studies: Each day we read a book about a branch of the armed forces, listened to its theme song on YouTube, and added what they do to protect our country to a T-chart. If there was a coordinating art activity, we did them on the same day as the book (ie. make paper airplanes the day you read about the Air Force, make tinfoil anchors the day you read about the Navy and so on).
–Art:
-Paint a camo army person: I let my littles each choose a multicultural person cut out, then use shades of green, black and brown paint camouflage suits on them.
-Camouflaged hearts: I had my littles cut out heart shapes from green construction paper and then tear small pieces of brown and lighter green to glue on top of them to make camouflage hearts for Veterans Day.
-Tinfoil anchors: I gave my littles 2 sheets of tinfoil and had them squish them into tube shapes. Then I had them bend one like a U and attach the second one to the center to make anchors- anchors aweigh my boys! (I was today years old when I learned it wasn’t “anchors away”…woops!)
-Decorate paper airplanes: I helped my littles make paper airplanes (I made my 2 year old’s and gave my 5 instructions while he folded his own with very little help). They decorated the wings of the planes then had a blast throwing them all around the house.
-Thank you cards for a veteran: I had my littles decorate thank you cards for a veteran- they chose to write to my dad (their grandpa) since he served in the Air Force. My 2 year old just colored his card, but my 5 year old drew an armed forces member in camo on the front (after we discussed some ideas for what to draw including an American flag, a heart, or a soldier). Inside he wrote a message (I helped him sound the words out).
–Extras:
-Letter of the week: Jj, each day we do a different activity focused on our letter- introduction/have your little practice it on the chalkboard (or white board), think of words that start with the letter and make a list, workbook letter writing practice, workbook word writing practice.
-Word of the week: be, each day we do a different activity focused on our word- introduction/sound the word out/have your little practice writing it on the chalkboard or whiteboard, word family list- think of other words that rhyme with your word of the week, use the word in a sentence (have your little come up with the sentence and write it for them) then have your little illustrate the sentence, and workpage practice.
-Bible verse: This month’s Bible verse is “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever.” Psalm 107:1 I write each word in the verse on a post-it, stick them to the wall then have my little point to each word and read it each day all month.
-Character trait of the month: gratitude…this word is reviewed and posted at the start of the month then each time one of my littles freely demonstrates gratitude I use the word to specifically praise what they’re doing and encourage the trait in them. (ie. “You said ‘thank you’ when I gave you your lunch! Thank YOU so much for showing me gratitude!”)
–Supply/shopping list:
- plastic army men
- book about each branch of the armed forces
- tinfoil
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