Veterans Day is marked on November 11th by honoring and paying respect to all people who have served in the U.S. military.
Remembrance Day is observed on the same day in Canada, Australia, and several other countries. Here are some thoughtful resources to mark before or after this day with your students.
Honoring Veterans in the Classroom
Resources for Early Elementary
- Second Story Window has a free Veterans Day and Remembrance Day Printable Book
- Teach contractions with Veterans’ Day Contractions Literacy Centers-4 Different Sets by Linda Post The Teachers Post
- Say thank you with Veterans Day Math and Word Fun (2 Readers, vocab., add, subtract, skip count) by Emily Ames
- It’s never to early to learn about Veterans Day + Presidents + Elections from Kelley Dolling – Teacher Idea Factory
Resources for Upper Elementary
- Educating Everyone 4 Life has Veterans Day Word Wall Cards
- Or try Veteran’s Day: Grammar and Vocabulary Review with Patriotic Idiom by Debbie Wood
- Free to Teach offers a Vetrans Day Grades 3-5 (30 pages!) Activities & Worksheets resource
Resources for Middle School
- Reading about war and it’s consequences? Try Olivia McGarvey’s Between Shades of Gray – Ruta Sepetys Unit Plan and Chapter Questions
- or Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy 45 Question Objective Test by Angela Gall
- And Steven’s Social Studies Department offers a WWI Propaganda Poster Activity if you’d like to weave your own unit on Veterans Day
- Or a World War One Class Play brought to you by Susan Russell
Resources for High School
- How about an opportunity to interview veterans? Claudia Bartow has one free and two paid resources to help! Check out her Veterans’ Interview Project
- Create your own resources using Messare Clips and Design who consequently is a vet (Thank you!!!) and offers a great Veterans Day Patriotic Military Service Bundle
- Ruth S. has a Veterans Day resource and says, “These are meaningful and personal activities that I created for my students because I never found an all inclusive published version.”
- And if you need some inspiration, try History Outside the Lines’ Veteran’s Day – Ideas to Observe the Holiday with Your Students
Show Your Support
If you teach in the U.S. or at an American school abroad, it’s likely you have children of veterans in your classroom. You can find out by using Kudos 4 Kindergarten’s Veteran’s Day Graph.
Let’s make sure they know we’re thinking about them and their families. How about writing a letter of thanks and appreciation — the holidays are a hard time to be away from the ones we love.
If you would like to do a class project and send letters to our service members, here are a couple of organizations that will make sure they reach the correct hands. You might even use The Climbing Grapevine’s (free) Veterans Day We Salute You Writing Paper or The Constant Kindergartener’s Veterans Day 32 Writing and Drawing Papers.
TpT Thanks and Honors Veterans
Here are more resources for Veterans Day and for Remembrance Day.
Patriotic clip art thanks to:
- Stars and Stripes Alphabet – Graphics for Teaching — Graphics From the Pond
- Free Stars and Stripes Background — Teaching for Fun
- FREE Clip Art! Red, White, & Blue Stars — Digital Divide and Conquer
