Veteran's Day Activities for Children
Veteran's Day is a federal holiday celebrated in the United States each year on November 11th and honors those who serve our country.
This holiday can be easily passed over as it comes in the midst of the busy holiday season, wedged in between Halloween and Thanksgiving. However, it remains equally as important to honor and celebrate this day, as well as educating our children/students. Here are a few ways you can educate your child on the holiday, while also working on your communication targets!
Articulation: Use your child's target sounds! Pick a Veteran's day book or craft to complete with your child. Identify words or items that contain your target sounds. See our sample list below with target sounds in bold!
Veterans Day Red White Blue Stars (you can target /st/ blend, "ar", and /z/!) Stripes Green Soldier (/s/,"j", "er") Marines Navy Coast Guard Army Air Force (/f/, "or", /s/) Remember November Eleven
One of my favorite activities to complete with my students was to write letters or color pictures depending on the skill level of the student(s) to send to a local Veteran organization. This activity is a great push-in activity to complete with an entire class. I preferred to contact teacher's ahead of time to let them know what my goals are for my student(s) and discuss how we can incorporate the class's lesson plan. Oftentimes, literacy and writing targets were typically the goals we chose to focus on with the class at large.
I would begin my session either with a themed book or discussion. Next, I would simply provide coloring sheets or writing prompts for them to follow. Here, you can target articulation (repeating target sounds found in craft items or the story), expressive and receptive language (requesting, commenting, following directions), and even social skills if there is interaction with peers. The students seemed to have enjoyed this activity and were thrilled to receive responses.