"Thinking About Others" on Veteran's Day

On Tuesday, November 11th, we honor the brave men and women who have served in the Armed Forces.  Their courage and sacrifice is unmeasurable.  Some stories are untold for reasons that are personal and painful while other stories are shared to honor and remember.

On February 25, 2014, my grandfather passed away.  He was a World War II veteran, serving overseas in the Asiatic Pacific Theater and earning the Victory Medal and the Army of Occupation Medal-Japan.   This is all I know because my grandpa never talked about his service.  Not to me.  Not to my mother.  Not to anyone.  But he was proud.  He was proud to have served and grateful to have come home.  I wish he would have shared his stories so that I could pass them down to my daughter  and students, but it wasn't to be.  In honor of him and the hundreds of thousands of veterans, we created a series of activities for students to learn more about people who have served or are currently serving in the United States Armed Forces.

Right now, we are focusing heavily on the Social Thinking® concept of "Just Me Thinking" and "You Thinking" in our social skills groups. We changed the wording a bit to "Just Me Thinking" and "Thinking of Others," with an emphasis on "Thinking of Others." With Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving just around the corner, we think the combination will lend itself perfectly to this concept while making real-world connections.  We decided to expand this activity so that it could be used with students in our DCD group and other language groups.  The activities focus on common core targets but are differentiated by LEVEL 1 and LEVEL 2 activities to support students with different learning abilities and needs.

To understand more about veterans and troops, the students needed to gather background information.  We presented students with two short and "child-friendly" videos.  (It was difficult to find videos that did not include any type of guns or violence, but we think we captured this in two video selections.)  We used a map to look at where the soldiers were located in relation to themselves.  The students answered comprehension questions and used that information to compare and contrast themselves with/to a soldier.

We went one step further and asked students to take a soldier's perspective and answer questions as if they were a soldier.  Our purpose was two-fold; first, we wanted students to take someone else's perspective which is one of our most important foundational skills for social skills and secondly, we hoped that this activity would help students to think about items to send in a care package to the troops.

Our final step is to write letters to the troops, which seems to be a lost art in a world of emailing and texting.  Because of this, we provided students with graphic organizers to support them in this process.  They'll finish their letters by writing them on a cute, lined letter template.

We cannot wait to see the finished product and cannot think of a better way to show appreciation to the troops, highlighting an important American holiday with an educational focus.  If you'd like to grab a copy of this product, you can find it here at our TpT store.