Veterans Day Activities for Upper Elementary

Veterans Day is an extremely important holiday to bring into the classroom. In this post, I want to share some of my favorite Veterans Day activities for upper elementary. All of the resources featured in this post are free to download. Links will be available throughout the post.

First, I always love to start my lesson with the read aloud The Wall by Eve Bunting. I choose to use this read aloud because it evokes empathy with the students and humanizes soldiers who have made sacrifices (some the ultimate sacrifice) for their country. This book is about a young boy who visits the Vietnam Memorial Wall with his father. They are there to find the boy’s grandfather’s name on the wall. While there, they also meet a soldier who lost his legs in the war. I love this book for Veterans Day because of the conversations you can have with the students about how all veterans are important to honor and remember, not just those who lost their lives.

When I read a book, I always have my guiding questions in mind to spark student conversation and really get them to dig deeper into a text and to check their comprehension. I typed up my questions in the order they appear in the book. Feel free to pick and choose the ones you want to focus on with your students.

Also, I know a lot of teachers (myself included) use literacy centers in their classrooms. I also typed the questions in a task card format to use in a center. Just place the read aloud and the task cards in a center and let your students read and learn.

I also love connecting reading and writing. I usually come up with several writing prompts to choose from that align with my read alouds. I have included a printable for those as well.

Click here to grab the FREE activities for The Wall.

After reading The Wall, I like to dig into the holiday itself to ensure the students understand the purpose. This FREE passage (available in three levels) from Bow Tie Guy and Wife is perfect for this purpose. I print it at 85%, so it can be placed in the students’ notebooks.

Click here to download the FREE Veterans Day passage from Bow Tie Guy and Wife.

I love this coloring page that I found for free on the Internet. The students can color this in and make a bulletin board display. They might also tape it on their shirts to show their appreciation for all veterans.

Click here to download the Veterans Day coloring page from the kit found on www.va.gov for FREE. The coloring page is found on page 29.

These Veterans Day activities are perfect for upper elementary students. These activities would work perfectly as a whole group lesson or placed in centers. I hope you found something useful in this post.