Patriot Day - 9/11

Our school is keeping it very low key. We plan to all wear red, white, and blue and take an extra long moment of silence, maybe some patriotic songs, etc. I have a second grader of my own, and he has very little awareness of what really happened on Sept. 11 ! I am focusing on honoring the heroes- the firefighters, military, etc. and honoring the victims on my own. I just feel that they are too young to grasp the whole thing! Heck-I feel like I haven't fully grasped it yet either!

This was done in our school after 9/11. We have a large black space in one hallway, on the outside of one kindergarten room. Two stips of white bulletin board paper were put up, making an area about 6 feet by at least 12 to form a large flag, I'm not sure of the dimensions, but this worked well for our school population. A large blue area was put in the upper left corner with fifth graders sponge painting stars for it. Before it was put up all the kids made hand prints with red paint to form the red stripes, so each student was could say "This is our flag". It was neat to see the size of the handprints ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade, of over 300 kids, teachers participated as well. We also had a sing along one morning at opening time. All the classes went into the hallway by their room at a prearranged time and sang several patriotic songs at the same time. You could hear the distant voices from the other floor and hallway.

A kinder teacher in our school traced her students hands on red, white and blue paper. She then cut them out and made a bald eagle out of them. She cut out hundreds of little hands, but the bulletin board looks awesome. She also made American flags with tiny pieces of tissue paper, so they look 3-d. She then used bendable wire, red, white and bule star border. (The kind you get from Michaels.)

Each classroom is going to wear a certain color t-shirt..red, white, and blue. We are goig to make an American flag using our students and sing patriotic songs. Also, a moment of silence, as well as, a variety of student created displays to honor those of Sept. 11th will be displayed.

I teach 3rd grade. I am planning on kicking off an America Unit on September 11th. I am going to mainly focus on famous landmarks. We are going to learn about the history behind famous things and places such as: Liberty Bell, Mount Rushmore, Statue of Liberty, Golden Gate Bridge, St. Louis Arch, etc... We are going to learn what makes these things symbols of America and why terrorists might pick these places to attack.

I am planning on doing an activity on heroes and having the children write about who their hero is and why. I will also do some patriotic activities. I think as a school we are going to do something together. We want to provide a united front for the children. I would not base my teaching on the NEA, lord knows they give enough of my dues to causes and candidates I do not believe in or endorse.

We're calling 9/11 Patriot Day and the kids are wearing red, white, and blue. We're having a short memorial that morning at the flag pole. We have the color guard coming, also. It's not very long, because the younger kids can't handle it. Leading up to it, we have kids sending in names of military personnel, and we put a yellow ribbon in the hallway with their name. Last year we had their pictures with them, also. We made that week "Community Helpers" week, also, so it ties in with the police, firemen, etc... Each grade level has a different part that will have a speaker (5th grade has military, so someone from the military will speak to us). The kids are bringing in goodies to deliver to them (cookies, coffee, etc... - things they can use on their job), and the PTO is making baskets up with it.

Last year I taught my kids the words to God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood. Then we looked for magazine pictures to match the words of the song, which we then made into a booklet. After this, they drew their own pictures to go along with the words, making their own individual booklets.

I chose pictures from each student and cut and pasted a class book that included something from everyone. I made transparencies of this booklet and the magazine book and used it as a "slide" show for the parents and grandparents at a Veterans' Day/Thanksgiving program that I do in November. The kids sing the song while their pictures are shown on the screen. Needless to say, the families are very touched, hearing their sweet voices singing that beautiful song and seeing their precious drawings on the screen. (Even some of the dads were in tears.) It's quite an involved project, but I feel very well worth it.

Something I've done in the past was have the kids make an American flag using ripped paper scraps. I traced a flag outline onto a piece of white construction paper. Then they ripped bits of red, white, and blue construction paper and glued them down in an overlapping way to form the stripes and the blue corner area. I've also thought about having them look through magazines to rip out pictures of red and blue things to make the color. I also have some white star stickers that I give them for the corner bit. I've done this twice and both times they turned out nice.

September 11th is my birthday and a day in history I'll never forget.

Deb

There is a book entitled "September 12th: We Knew Everything Would Be All Right" by Masterson Elementary Students. It was made by a group of students. It is short and tells how they may have been scared, but knew that things would be better. It can be very scary for them, these kids were only 1-2 years old. I feel that we have to address it in some way, I live in NJ and it is really close to home. But maybe making flags and decorating the hallways, singing God Bless America, and reading a short story.

God Bless America, our troops and all the families that lost a loved one from the terrible terrorists that attacked our country.

I was at school today and talking with some other teachers about this. Our principal was talking about getting some local police and fire fighters to come in and eat lunch with the kids on the Sept. 11--kind of like a "thank you" for what they do. I was thinking of having my fifth graders write letters to the police or fire fighters, too, in addition to doing some activities on tolerance and patriotism.

The woven heart is in the Aug/Sept issue of Mailbox. My kids made them and they look great. I put them up with a poem by Mattie Stepanek called 911...2002. I also had the kids write a personal narrative of 9/11/01. Our computer teacher helped them publish the work on "patriotic" paper. The display looks great.I'm still not sure if my school is doing anything school wide but I felt like I wanted to do something.