J has been asking me for the last few years why we celebrate Memorial Day so for day one of our Memorial Day Unit Study we learned some of the history of Memorial Day. We also learned with our toy army men, Venn Diagrams, art projects, geography and some math.
Memorial Day Order
Discuss: Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. It is celebrated on the last Monday in May.
Read: Memorial Day by Trudi Strains Trueit and the Order for recognizing Memorial Day as a national holiday.
Comprehension Questions:
- Why do we celebrate Memorial Day? Because we are remembering and honoring the people who serve in our military. They work to keep us safe and give us our freedom.
- Write the word Memorial on the front board. See how the word memorial is like the word memory. On Memorial Day, we remember and thank the people in our military.
All About Memorial Day
We used the All About Memorial Day handout to learn more.
Army Men Math
Materials:
- Army Men
- Hoola Hoops
Directions:
- First count them to see how many there are. You can put them in piles of 10 and then count by 10’s.
- Sort and arrange into patterns by color first then by the soldier’s position. Try and AB pattern first then try something harder like AABCC.
- Create a Venn diagram with hoola hoops. Compare standing soldiers to laying soldiers, with kneeling soldiers in the middle.
- Remove any extra pieces so that you have a number divisible by 10 (say they were injured and went to the hospital).
- Set up 10 men as generals, how many soldiers could each general command, if all the men were divided equally among the 10 generals?
Army Men Math
How many army men do you have? (count by tens)______________
How many of each color do you have?
Light Green?_________________
Dark Green?_________________
Gray?______________________
How many in each position?
Standing?___________________
Kneeling?___________________
Laying?_____________________
Remove any extra pieces so that you have a number divisible by 10 (say they were injured and went to the hospital). If 10 were generals how many could each general command?_____________________
Drawing Army Men
Discuss: Show the children how to make the army man body after examining a few different army men together. Observe how the arms and legs bend because of knees and elbows. Here is a step by step guide for the child. Look at all the details of their little man.
Materials:
- Army Men
- Pencil
- Green Marker
- Water Colors
Directions:
- Use the diagram above to draw an outline of your army man with a green marker,
- paint the army man with green water colors,
- for the back ground draw camouflage or an American flag.
American Casualty Locations
Discuss: Many American soldiers have died protecting our countries freedom. Here is a list of all the wars that Americans have fought in. It also tells how many American’s died in each war. We are so thankful for each and every soldier for giving their life for our freedom.
Directions: Study the list and display a large world map, and ask students to point out the places where Americans have fought and died.
Memorial Day Poppy
Discuss: On Memorial Day you will often see veterans selling poppies in memory of those people who died for our country.
Materials:
- Red tissue paper
- White paper
- Green pipe cleaner
- Glue
- Green seed beads
- Aluminum foil
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Pen
Directions:
- Cut a 3 inch square of aluminum foil and red tissue paper.
- Glue the red tissue square over the aluminum foil square, and let it dry.
- Cut a 2 inch circle from the tissue covered foil to make the poppy.
- Poke a 6 inch piece of green pipe cleaner through the center of the poppy for the stem. Bend the end of the stem to one side and glue it to the center of the flower.
- Cover the center of the poppy with glue and sprinkle the glue with green seed beads for the center of the poppy.
- Cut a thin 4 inch strip from the white paper. Fold the strip of paper in half and glue it around the stem of the poppy.
- Use a pen to write “Memorial Day” and the date on the paper strip.\
- Stick the stem of the poppy through a buttonhole on your shirt to wear it on Memorial Day.
Check out the other day that we spent learning about Memorial Day: