Veterans, We Love You

As my Super Stars were deciding what "thankful" meant, one of them asked "Mrs. Sommerville, what's that holiday after Halloween, but before Thanksgiving?  The one for Army guys like my dad?"

Veterans Day, perhaps not the holiday that many students of civilian parents would group together with the usual Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas trio, but one that we as teachers on a military post observe with respect, not only for our nation's Armed Forces past and present, but for their families and children as well.

After we identified who veterans were and are, and agreed that veterans not only gave us our freedom but continue to protect it as well, I asked what kind of art project we should make for our hallway display.  Our shared kindergarten wavelength being what it is, one student began "Veterans gave us our freedom..." and a second student finished the thought with "We give veterans our hearts.  Mrs. Sommerville!  We should make hearts!"

Of course I teared up.

And then got to work.

I traced a large open heart onto white tagboard:



...asked our aide to punch out red and blue stars (each student used six or seven of each, depending on how far apart they spaced them onto the heart):



After students affixed the stars around the heart in an AB pattern, they glued it onto purple backing paper (yes, one of my student's fathers is a Purple Heart recipient):



Students then wrote "Thank you Veterans.  We love you." on handwriting paper and glued it onto the heart (apologies for the grainy photo):



Silver glitter glue was swirled onto stars for some added sparkle, and the hearts framed our bulletin board turkey character:



Student-inspired displays are the best, don't you agree?