Veterans Day Lesson Plan: Civic Ideas and Practices

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Veterans Day Lesson Plan. 

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Veterans Day, and supports the standard of analyzing holidays and symbols of our nation. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students: 

  • Who do you think we honor on Veterans Day? 
  • Do you know any veterans? What do you know about their experiences? 

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read aloud the description on the Veterans Day topic page.
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Assign Related Reading. Have students read one of the four articles. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign the Veterans Day Challenge and Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about Veterans Day while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Create a documentary that answers this question: When was the first Veterans Day celebrated and why?
  • Make-a-Map: Make a timeline that sequences the history of Veterans Day.
  • Creative Coding: Code a meme to honor the contributions of veterans. 
  • Primary Source Activity: Examine the posters and cite details to answer the accompanying questions.

More to Explore

Time Zone X: World War I:  Challenge players to put historical events in chronological order in this interactive timeline game.

Teacher Support Resources:

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    Filed as:  3-5, 6-8, BrainPOP, Lesson Ideas, Lesson Plan, Veterans Day