I also planned a lesson for my third graders about Veterans Day. I found a few resources that I included in this lesson. One of these was a book titled Veterans Day written by Mir Tamim Ansary. This book did a great job to introduce students to Veterans Day. It wasn't too simple or too difficult to understand. It presented information on World War I and World War II in a way that young students could understand. The students asked a lot of questions about these wars. They wanted to understand just what happened and what "side" America was on. I love how things are so concrete for kids. Surely we joined the side of the "good guys, right." Discovery Streaming had a great video that we watched. Again, Veterans Day was presented in a manner that young students could understand. Of course we paused the video in spots to talk about difficult terms like Armistice. The students cheered for the Veterans at the end of the video. I quickly changed those celebratory feelings with a Reading Rainbow video of Eve Bunting's book The Wall. Bunting's book tells the story of a young boy and his father who are visiting the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. to find the name of his grandfather who was killed in the war. While there the boy sees others who have come to the wall for different reasons. He sees a grandfather with his grandson at the wall. He appreciates that his grandfather was recognized with his name on the wall but decides he would rather have his grandfather there with him instead. This book has always been one of my favorites and this Reading Rainbow video was better than I could have imagined. Host Levar Burton appeared at the wall and video showed the wall as he gave its history and significance. The video then showed the book The Wall being read by a young boy. There was silence in the library during the video. There was silence even after the video finished. Many of the students commented that the video made them sad and they wished that the little boy could have his grandfather with him, too. I reminded the students that while they may be celebrating a day off from school on Veterans Day that they should think about others who would be missing loved family members, those who gave their all in a land far away for people they would never meet. I hope that this lesson will help students better understand the significance of Veterans Day and help them appreciate the sacrifice veterans make each day.
Veterans Day has always meant a lot to me. My father served in the Air Force and my grandfather proudly fought in World War II. He was injured during the war and came home to us with a purple heart. My birthday falling on Veterans Day doesn't hurt either. I have found though that not a lot of kids know anything about Veterans Day. All they ever seem to know is that we get the day off for school. When asked why, they don't really know. This year I wanted to increase the awareness of Veterans Day. I started with a display in my library. I have been doing genre and author spotlights this year. Why not a holiday spotlight - for some of those lesser known holidays? This is what my display looked like before he books started to get checked out.
I also planned a lesson for my third graders about Veterans Day. I found a few resources that I included in this lesson. One of these was a book titled Veterans Day written by Mir Tamim Ansary. This book did a great job to introduce students to Veterans Day. It wasn't too simple or too difficult to understand. It presented information on World War I and World War II in a way that young students could understand. The students asked a lot of questions about these wars. They wanted to understand just what happened and what "side" America was on. I love how things are so concrete for kids. Surely we joined the side of the "good guys, right." Discovery Streaming had a great video that we watched. Again, Veterans Day was presented in a manner that young students could understand. Of course we paused the video in spots to talk about difficult terms like Armistice. The students cheered for the Veterans at the end of the video. I quickly changed those celebratory feelings with a Reading Rainbow video of Eve Bunting's book The Wall. Bunting's book tells the story of a young boy and his father who are visiting the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. to find the name of his grandfather who was killed in the war. While there the boy sees others who have come to the wall for different reasons. He sees a grandfather with his grandson at the wall. He appreciates that his grandfather was recognized with his name on the wall but decides he would rather have his grandfather there with him instead. This book has always been one of my favorites and this Reading Rainbow video was better than I could have imagined. Host Levar Burton appeared at the wall and video showed the wall as he gave its history and significance. The video then showed the book The Wall being read by a young boy. There was silence in the library during the video. There was silence even after the video finished. Many of the students commented that the video made them sad and they wished that the little boy could have his grandfather with him, too. I reminded the students that while they may be celebrating a day off from school on Veterans Day that they should think about others who would be missing loved family members, those who gave their all in a land far away for people they would never meet. I hope that this lesson will help students better understand the significance of Veterans Day and help them appreciate the sacrifice veterans make each day.
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A couple of years ago I wanted my 5th grade students to practice their Power Point skills. I was looking for a theme and thought, "Hey, let's do favorite authors! Students can choose their favorite, find some facts about the author, and then share those in a Power Point!" Simple, right? Wrong! I was surprised when students struggled to come up with an author they liked. I had been reading books to these kids for years. We had talked about authors - even completed author studies. Surely they knew authors they enjoyed reading. Nope. This got me to thinking about what more I could do to help students recognize authors, their work, and the characters they create. One way I am going to do this is to plan more author studies. I will be implementing this in my lessons this school year. Each grade will have at least one author study each school year. I will be highlighting authors more when we read their books. I will try to have photos of authors and some facts to share with students as we read books throughout the year. And finally, I have dedicated a book case to display an Author of the Month Spotlight. I created some signs to go in my display and I am using author posters that I found on The Book Bug blog. At the beginning of each month I will talk with students, across the grade levels, about the author in our spotlight. I will read the author poster to the students and we will look at some of the books written by that author. I will book talk some of these books in the hopes that students will check them out and give them a try. My first author spotlight, for October, was Gertrude Chandler Warner, author of The Boxcar Children mysteries. November's author spotlight will be Jan and Stan Berenstain. I know the kids are familiar with the Berenstain Bears, but I want them to be familiar with the Berenstain authors as well. I think I will try that favorite author Power Point assignment again in the future. Hopefully, the kids will have trouble choosing between all of their favorite authors! |
About me . . .Formerly a classroom teacher. Currently a School Library Media Coordinator. I loved being in the classroom, but now that I am in the library I can't imagine doing anything else! The library is my favorite place to be. From my rocking chair to my ABC rug to the smiling student faces checking out books, the library just can't be beat! Archives
March 2020
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