Veteran Day Activities

I had school on Veteran's Day. Working on Veteran's Day meant we could all have the week of Thanksgiving off. But, because it was Veteran's Day we were asked to have activities for children that related to the holiday. My students were thrilled to be able to do art for the Veteran in their life.

2nd to 5th grades did collages with red, white and blue paper. I had some pre-cut shapes available to save time. We talked about composition and how to arrange the different components for a collage. And it's always good to go over expectations for using glue...... even with 5th graders.

 

 

   

 You can see one of my students is still really into the pop up cards we made here.

The kindergarten and 1st grade project was a more directed project. After a quick book explaining the history of Veteran's Day my students made a poppy flower to "hand" out.

 

 I had hand tracers for them to use and they had an assortment of skin tones to choose from. Believe me when I say tracing their own hand is usually a disaster. They turn out really tiny and very difficult for them to cut out.

 Then they had 5" squares of red paper that they folded twice and made into a poppy flower.
 

   

See above. Fold in half, then in half again.

     

 

 Really important, students must point all 4 corners up and then draw the shape for the poppy flower.

Cut on the line, through all the paper at once AND open to reveal a poppy flower!

They then proceeded to glue down the hand with the flower on top. After that they could decorate and detail to their own specifications. My feeling is even with a directed project they can be creative and learn/practice some important skills.

Thanks for reading!