Veterans Day & Patriotic Week

We had a Patriotic/Veterans Day mini unit this week and the kids were all about it! Here is my bulletin board, thank you Cara @ First Grade Parade for this idea (although yours is cuter!!)

We started the week reading Red, White and Blue in our basal for a little history lesson on our country and our flag. We listened to it, then they got to read it to someone the next day during Daily 5. Then I read The Pledge of Allegiance to them.

This book is awesome at showing what each part of the Pledge actually means! It is something we say every single morning, but most of my kiddos didn't know what they were really promising. I made up a quick booklet for them to fill out afterwards. They had to write what each part of the pledge means, then answer a few questions about the flag at the end. They did great!

Heads up: this is NOT cutesy and I just hand wrote it because I was impatient and wanted to get home :) But it did the job!

 

I read them several other books about different symbols. A couple that I really liked, and that were easy for them to understand were these ones:

 

After we learned all about symbols, we made a cute booklet that my friend had given me a couple years back (that I completely forgot to photograph!) The kids were all about it, and couldn't wait to take it home to teach their families all about America's symbols of freedom!

We talked a LOT about freedom this week, and how our troops sacrifice everything to protect our country. We wanted to thank our soldiers and veterans for all they do for us. One of my little girls has a dad who is currently deployed, so we decided to write letters and draw pictures for him. They were SO into it, and the little girl was just SO excited and proud! LOVED IT.

On Friday, we had our Veterans Day assembly, and then I had my dad come talk to my class. He did really great :) I was happy he decided to come!

Then to end our mini unit, I had my kiddos write about their freedoms in America and make little Bald Eagles... although some ended up looking more like pigeons because I accidentally left the giant googly eyes in the bag for them to choose from!! They are still cute :)

^ That is how I intended the eagles to look :) 

This week was  a bit crazy with the Full Moon, but we survived, and I can tell that my students LOVE America and are so proud :) Can't wait to start Thanksgiving stuff for the next week and a half!! Then can you believe it'll be Christmas??? YAY!