Veterans Day Bulletin Board Display 2016

As the proud wife of an Army veteran and as the teacher of many children from military families, our Veterans Day bulletin board display is an annual favorite of mine:

This year I added another fine motor task for my students, scrunching up tissue paper to fill a heart shape pennant:

Each veteran bears the family's last name, soldier style:

For how to's, visit my original post from two years ago (by clicking here) to see materials and dimensions for this craft.

And here's a freebie for you, the "Thank You for Your Service" pennant template image (do NOT download it as a Google doc, just download it as is).

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Thank you, Veterans!

Veterans Day Craft

Being the wife of a United States veteran, and having taught so many students from military families, it has always been important to me to include a Veterans Day craft in my lesson plans each November.

Here's what we used for our hallway bulletin boards:

(1) large 12 X 18 inch piece of light gray construction paper (cut as shown for body)

(1) 3 X 18 inch rectangle of light gray construction paper (arms)

(1) 5 X 8 inch rectangle of light gray construction paper (curved at top for helmet)

(1) 7 X 7 square of light gray construction paper (curved at bottom) 

(1) 6 X 6 square of skin colored construction paper (for face; curved at bottom; will be glued to 7 X 7 gray square)

(2) 3 X 4 rectangles in dark brown (to be cut into boot shapes)

(2) 3 X 3 squares in skin colored construction paper (for hands)

(1) 7 X 1 and 1/2 inch strip of red, brown, yellow, or black paper (for hair)

(2)  2 X 2 white squares (for eyes)

Red, white, and blue construction paper hearts (we layered ours)

(1) 1 X 4 strip of black construction paper (my students wrote their veterans' names on them and then glued them onto the hearts)

(2) shades of gray paint, one lighter than the other

(1) sponge, cut into smaller rectangles

Before working with the skin colored construction paper, my kindergartners glued the long rectangular gray strip across the back of the torso portion of the body piece.  Then they applied two different shades of gray paint with sponges, to mimic the digital camouflage pattern on modern Army uniforms, onto the body, arms, and smaller helmet piece.

Then the Stars glued the skin color piece onto the remaining gray piece, making sure the curved corners matched up.  The gray peeking around the face looks like the helmet's strap.  Then the kindergartners chose their soldier's hair color and glued it above the face:

After the paint had dried, the Stars completed the assembly of their veteran soldiers by gluing the helmet to the top of the head (leaving some hair peeking out), eyes onto the face, hands onto the end of each arm, and boots at the end of each leg. They used crayons to color in the eyes, and add mouths and cheeks. Then our red and white hearts were layered on top of the blue heart, and each student wrote his or her last name across the thin black rectangle, to mimic a soldier's name tag.

We hope visitors to our school enjoy our Veterans Day bulletin board during Open House later this month.

Thank you, Veterans!

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?

Teacher Tip: Check Those Take-Home Pages

With Veterans Day right around the corner, Scholastic did a fabulous feature in their "Let's Find Out" weekly take home pages about a war veteran who is helped by a support animal, Benjamin:



Unfortunately, it's one take-home flier that I won't be able to use with my students.

You see, my Stars' parents are United States soldiers, several of them either deployed or soon-to-be to places such as Afghanistan and Iraq.  Seeing photographs of a man injured in war hits too close to home, and my young students (and possibly their at-home parents) will not interpret the wonderful images or informative text the same way "civilian" children and families might.

Seeing Benjamin's photo on the front of the flier, I was tempted to put it in my students' mailboxes without worry, but something told me to look inside.  I'm glad I did, because the emotional sensitivity of the students I teach must be taken into serious consideration because of the lifestyle they live:  their parents leave them for months or a year at a time to travel and work in very dangerous parts of the world.  Daddy or Mommy getting shot or blown up by an IED is a very real possibility for these five and six year olds.  As their teacher, it's my job to be protectively selective.

Teacher tip:  Know your students and their families, and know what you're sending home to them.  Even the most responsible and trusted of publishers might share features that are inappropriate for the students you teach.

Thank You Veterans

... and gratitude to you, Dear Husband, as you spend this day so far away.

We miss and love you.  Stay safe.