IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for VETERANS' DAY!

 

Veterans' Day is Monday, Nov. 11. How will you honor our veterans?

The history of this special day seems like a great place to start. However, a dry recitation of the facts is uninspiring. Condense it with poetry!

This poem, and the Poetry Possibilities that accompany it, will provide a concise description of the day's origins. You can find this resource here:

While you are celebrating our great patriots, try these patriotic resources:

VETERANS' DAY in the CLASSROOM

 

It's about time, teachers, for Veterans' Day! To honor our veterans, try this poem and the teaching possibilities that accompany it.

These resources are in my FALL POETRY POSSIBILITIES UNIT.

This poetry unit also contains poetry specific to November.  Check it out!

You may also like these resources with a patriotic theme:

It's also about time for elections in the U.S.  You will love these Hink Pinks, et al. made especially for that day.

You can find these 40 task cards here.

Using Poetry in the Classroom -- Part 5

It's about time for Veterans' Day, teachers! Naturally, that means it's about time for a poem.  And, of course, some activities to go with it.

This poem is an example of free verse; poetry free of rhyme and meter restraints.  It gives a concise history of this holiday.

After sharing the poem with your class and engaging students in a discussion about the history, place copies of the poem in your literacy center.  Challenge your students to find words that are homophones, highlighting them on their copies.  Then ask them to list the words and their alternate spellings.

You might ask the children to add to the list with more homophones they know.

Extend the learning by reading Granddad Bud: A Veterans Day Story, by Sharon Ferry.  It's an engaging book for all elementary students and provides great information about Veterans' Day.

Ask your students to write their own poems about Veteran's Day.  Suggest they write haikus, traditional Japanese poetry.  The stipulations for haiku are that the children write 3 lines.  Lines 1 and 3 should have 5 syllables each, while line 2 should contain 7 syllables.  Haiku poetry need not rhyme.  This exercise will give you insight into how well your class understands the holiday.

This poem is from my unit, Fall Poetry Possibilities.  It has many more poems and their teaching possibililites ready for your classroom.

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It's about time for Veterans' Day, teachers! 

That means it's about time for a poem. And, of course, some activities to go with it.

Here are some teaching possibilities:

This poem and the teaching possibilities are part of Poetry Possibilities: Fall Edition.  There are 25 additional poems.  Each poem is accompanied by a teaching point related to poetry, as well as activities, skill lessons, and poetry writing prompts. All of the activities are custom designed for that poem. Lessons include: 

• Elements of poetry (rhyme, internal rhyme, rhyme scheme, rhythm, figurative language, voice, imagery, form)
• Poetic form (haiku, tanka, acrostic poems, tercet poems, cinquain poetry, 1-2-3 poems, 5 senses poetry, list poems)
• Guided reading lessons (CAP, phonemes, rimes, fluency, expression, grammar)

• Book links
• History
• Math (graphing, patterns)
• Art (visual, performing)

Every poem is copy ready so that you may have your students bind them into an anthology of their own. 

These poems provide a range of reading levels appropriate to both primary and intermediate classrooms. Thus, you can accommodate students reading above or below grade level. 

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A Poem for Veterans' Day

It's about time for Veterans' Day, teachers! That means it's about time for a poem.  And, of course, some activities to go with it.

You could also challenge your students' detective skills.  Since this poem is replete with polysyllabic words, ask them to find all the 3 syllable words, 4 syllable words, etc.  Put this poem in a literacy center and direct your students to find and list all the homophones and their alternate spellings.

The poem and possibilities are found in my unit, Poetry Possibilities -- Fall.

Thank you, Veterans!