Veterans Day: Activities to Honor Veterans While Teaching Technology Skills in the Elementary School

During the first quarter of the school year we get many opportunities to explore our patriotism by celebrating Constitution Day in September, exploring the election process in early November, followed quickly by observing Veterans Day.

The world rejoiced at the end of World War I and in 1938 the federal holiday of “Armistice Day” was created. In 1954 the holiday was renamed to “Veterans Day” so that all Veterans could be honored.

What types of activities can we do to help children appreciate the Veterans that have served? My goal is twofold: one, to honor the Veterans, and two, to build some technology skills into the process.

Some ideas for using technology to honor the Veterans include:

• Visiting the websites for children created by the Veteran organizations.
• Write letters, poems, and create cards for the Veterans and distribute at local Veteran hospitals and homes. These cards can be made in KidPix or any other drawing program. This might include a flag with a note written in the stripes, or word-processed letters with clipart, or computerized drawings of the people of the armed forces (especially well done by kindergarten, first and second grades!)
• Create a class book of all the pictures created by the class, bind, and give to a local VA hospital or VA home.
• Podcasting of recorded histories created by interviewing Veterans, either in school or out of school.
• Podcast by students about why we are grateful for the armed forces.
• Bring Veterans to school and honor them through songs, skits, and stories from the children.
• Bring a Veteran to school to share with the students about the history and experiences of being a part of the armed forces.

Around the world this day is celebrated whether it is called Veterans Day, Remembrance Day, or Armistice Day. The idea is to renew our commitment to world peace. The children of our world need to be taught and reminded that world peace is a goal worth achieving. In addition, our children need to take time to connect with adults, learn to listen, and appreciate what the people who have served our country have to teach all of us.

Technology Lessons at Home

Tonight I am writing to share a technology learning activity that we have been going through here at home. My oldest daughter, Kate, is 10. She would be quite happy if she never did another worksheet in her life and I spend quite a bit of time trying to find something educational that interests her. One thing she loves to do is to make movies.

Just recently we added two hamsters into our household. (After ridding ourselves of 8 mice, I'm not sure how the girls managed to convince me to allow these hamsters into our family, except that they don't have tails.....)

The girls discovered that the hamsters love to burrow and sleep together inside of snuggly tunnels of material. Kate started making "hamster beds." With some encouragement from me, and the contagious entrepreneur spirit in our house, she's now proud to have launched her very own online business! Not only has she filmed, edited, and published her first infomercial but she also created a webpage!

Now she's ready to package and mail her product. All she needs are a couple customers! If you know of anyone who would like to try some snuggly hamster beds, share Kate's webpage:
http://hamsterbeds.com

Even if you aren't at all interested in hamster beds, take a moment to look at her site to see how a 10 year old can launch an idea with a webpage and an infomercial with very little cost. Her learning through experience is amazing. She's already planning her next few infomercials!

The bottom line of all of this lesson is that the global economy can come into the lives of children these days. They don't have to only learn economics through bake sales any longer!

Halloween Activities: Using Classroom Technology & Multiple Intelligences for Classroom Lesson Plans

Halloween Learning Activities

Shh....don't tell anyone, because I would never want to sound like a party pooper, but I do have to quietly admit to you that holiday parties have never been a favorite time in the classroom for me. I don't know, 30 kids wired up on excitement, sugar, and costumes...what am I missing?

So, with that in mind, I've always tried to sneak in learning activities that have the disguise of holiday celebrations! When I was a classroom teacher my holiday parties strongly resembled "center activities" where students moved from one activity to the next. Kids know how to do this normal classroom routine and this kept craziness to a minimum.

Here it is Saturday night and I am at home working and I just finished a great activity pack for you for Halloween. Download the free packet at http://technologylessonsforteachers.com

On the pages you download you will find activities that were created to have learning purposes while also celebrating the holiday. Many of them have ties to the Multiple Intelligences. (Thanks for sharing to Celeste Chapman and Cheryl Hyslop who wrote these years ago and I reformatted them!) As a sixth grade teacher I would put one of these activities on each table and our “Holiday Party” included visiting all of the various center activities along with a treat table.

I have also done many of these activities in the computer lab; especially the history lesson, the map drawing (using KidPix), and the epitaph creation (using KidPix). I’ve used laptops with groups to do the interpersonal story writing.
Finally, at the end of the packet you have the pages for students to run a quick and easy fundraiser.

Hopefully some of these pages will help you continue to make kids think and expand their minds while also celebrating the holiday season.

So, sneak in learning when you can under whatever disguise is required!
Download the free packet at http://technologylessonsforteachers.com

And now, enough work for tonight......

Halloween Learning Activities

Shh....don't tell anyone, because I would never want to sound like a party pooper, but I do have to quietly admit to you that holiday parties have never been a favorite time in the classroom for me. I don't know, 30 kids wired up on excitement, sugar, and costumes...what am I missing?

So, with that in mind, I've always tried to sneak in learning activities that have the disguise of holiday celebrations! When I was a classroom teacher my holiday parties strongly resembled "center activities" where students moved from one activity to the next. Kids know how to do this normal classroom routine and this kept craziness to a minimum.

Here it is Saturday night and I am at home working and I just finished a great activity pack for you for Halloween. Download the free packet at http://technologylessonsforteachers.com

On the pages you download you will find activities that were created to have learning purposes while also celebrating the holiday. Many of them have ties to the Multiple Intelligences. (Thanks for sharing to Celeste Chapman and Cheryl Hyslop who wrote these years ago and I reformatted them!) As a sixth grade teacher I would put one of these activities on each table and our “Holiday Party” included visiting all of the various center activities along with a treat table.

I have also done many of these activities in the computer lab; especially the history lesson, the map drawing (using KidPix), and the epitaph creation (using KidPix). I’ve used laptops with groups to do the interpersonal story writing.
Finally, at the end of the packet you have the pages for students to run a quick and easy fundraiser.

Hopefully some of these pages will help you continue to make kids think and expand their minds while also celebrating the holiday season.

So, sneak in learning when you can under whatever disguise is required!
Download the free packet at http://technologylessonsforteachers.com

And now, enough work for tonight......

Thinking Outside the Box

I was inspired by "The Dash" movie to see what else was on the Simple Truth website and I found this paper airplane movie. It really made me think about the
children that come to see me every day and whether I am inspiring them to think outside the box, or am I asking them to conform? And, if I am asking them to conform and do as I ask (or tell) them, how do I alter that thinking to inspire and celebrate creative thinking?

Something to think about....http://www.paperairplanemovie.com/

And yes, I do realize it is Friday night and I should be thinking of something else rather than kids and work....especially since my girls are gone for the weekend!

If you have any comments about this idea, feel free to comment below!