Connect!
Growing Little Leaves: Genealogy for Children
  • Home
  • About
  • Mission
  • Activities
  • Printables
    • Ancestor Worksheets
  • Books
    • Grandparents and Memory Journals
    • Immigration
    • Africa
    • Black America
    • Canada
    • East and Southeast Asia
    • India and Bangladesh
    • Latin America
    • Native America
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • Blog

Helping Kids Understand Memorial Day

5/25/2016

1 Comment

 
Last year, I wrote this post about why kids should learn about Memorial Day, and I gave readers some ideas on how to involve kids in commemorating the holiday. We've been talking about it again this week, and we've done a few other activities that have helped my kids understand, ask questions, and discuss why we celebrate Memorial Day.

1.) National Cemetery Diorama
My daughter and I have had a LOT of free time this week, as her school year is over and my part-time job / volunteering commitments are finished for the summer.  So, feeling crafty, we made a national cemetery diorama. My daughter enjoyed placing the flags next to each grave (and she can do it over and over again.)
Helping Kids Understand Memorial Day - National Cemetery Diorama from GrowingLittleLeaves.com
National Cemetery Diorama
Memorial Day Activities - National Cemetery Diorama from GrowingLittleLeaves.com
National Cemetery Diorama
We used a 12"x12" Styrofoam square for the base and covered it in grass-print scrapbook paper.  along with scrapbook paper, cardstock, round-pointed toothpicks, and a wooden food skewer for the large flag pole. 
I created a simple gravestone template (below) to use as a stencil on the white cardstock. You could also print the image directly onto cardstock, but our archaic home printer won't do that. I printed out one big flag and a bunch of tiny ones using this public-domain American flag graphic from Wikipedia. Then, all you need are some scissors, some glue, and some patience!
Picture
2.) Read The Wall by Eve Bunting
Picture
The Wall by Eve Bunting
Told from the perspective of a young boy, this book takes place at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. The boy is looking for his grandfather's name on the wall. The boy comes to learn why all these names are on the wall. Then, he and his father do a rubbing of the name and they leave a photo of the boy at the memorial "for Grandpa."

Of course, it is not a happy book, but I think it does a good job of appropriately explaining the ultimate sacrifice given by so many members of our military. Not only that, but it shows how those sacrifices emotionally affect future generations. 


3.) Memorial Day Word Search
My kids enjoy doing word puzzles, so I went on the Lakeshore Learning website and used their free word search generator to make a Memorial Day-themed word search. Feel free to download the one I made at the links below, or go back to the website to create your own!
memorial_day_word_search.pdf
File Size: 46 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

memorial_day_word_search_key.pdf
File Size: 48 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Print Friendly and PDF
Add to Flipboard Magazine.
1 Comment
Nicole Dyer
4/19/2017 10:46:19 pm

I'm going to check out The Wall!! And maybe it would be fun to make the diorama for my little family history storytime group also. They could each put a flag next to a stone.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Emily Kowalski Schroeder

    Founder and Author of Growing Little Leaves

    Emily Kowalski Schroeder / Founder and Author of GrowingLittleLeaves.com

    Categories

    All
    Ancestors
    Ancestor Worksheets
    Archiving
    Books
    Cemeteries
    Charts
    Colors
    Conferences
    Drawing
    Editorials
    Fashion
    Games
    Hands On
    Heirlooms
    Holidays
    Immigration
    Interviewing
    Maps
    Math
    Movies
    Newspapers
    Occupations
    Photos
    Programming
    Roleplay
    Science
    Storytelling
    Surnames
    Technology
    Timelines
    Tracing
    Vocabulary
    Writing

Home

About

Mission & Philosophy

Activities

Printables

Resources

Contact