|
Brief Description
This lesson offers a handful of way in which kids can
connect with American soldiers serving around the world.
Objectives
Students will
- write thoughtful messages of hope and support to U.S. military personnel.
- explore other ways to support America's troops.
Keywords
Iraq, soldiers, community service, war, troops, letters,
email, Memorial Day, Veterans Day
Materials Needed
- Internet access (optional for students; required for teachers)
- pencils, paper
Lesson Plan
This lesson offers ideas for students who would like to send messages to soldiers who are fighting for our country or serving in other ways.
Note -- May 2007
As of May 2007, the Operation Dear Abby site referenced in this lesson seems to be inactive. We will leave the link below "live" until we can be certain that it will not be made active again. In the meantime, for those of you who might be looking to have your students write to U.S. soldiers, here are some Web sites that might help you accomplish that.
A Million Thanks
Click the How to Mail Our Troops link for guidelines for writing and mailing letters.
Let's Say Thanks
This site provides an opportunity to send a printed postcard that will show your support and appreciation to U.S. military personnel stationed overseas.
America Supports You: Letters and Messages
This page offfers a long list of organizations and many ways for you and your students to support our troops.
Operation Dear Abby enables Americans to send special messages to our servicemen and women. The program, which dates back to the years of the Vietnam War, used to provide mailing addresses; but, with the difficulty delivering mail to service personnel in Iraq, Operation Dear Abby has gone online. Anybody can send or read messages of support sent to sailors, marines, soldiers, airmen and women, or Coast Guard members.
For classroom purposes, you might have students compose messages of support on paper. The messages can be corrected; after correction, students might type their corrected messages into a computer email program.
After the messages are sent, they can be accessed by any service member anywhere, so, if you would like to add one more step to the process, students could type their messages into a word processing document. Then you could cut and paste each message into a new Operation Dear Abby window.
Note from the site: "Service members without Internet access may still read messages. Company commanders who have Internet access have the ability to download bulk messages to be printed and distributed according to service branch and location."
More Ideas for Connecting Kids and Soldiers
For additional ways in which students might show their support for America's troops stationed overseas, see an Education World article, Lessons in Life: Connecting Kids and Soldiers.
Assessment
Students demonstrate their care and concern by writing thoughtful messages to
America's servicemen and women.
Lesson Plan Source
Education World
Submitted By
Gary Hopkins
National Standards
LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.4 Communication Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.11 Participating in Society
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills
SOCIAL SCIENCES: Civics
GRADES K - 4
NSS-C.K-4.2 Values and Principles of Democracy
NSS-C.K-4.4 Other Nations and World Affairs
NSS-C.K-4.5 Roles of the Citizen
GRADES 5 - 8
NSS-C.5-8.3 Principles of Democracy
NSS-C.5-8.4 Other Nations and World Affairs
NSS-C.5-8.5 Roles of the Citizen
GRADES 9 - 12
NSS-C.9-12.3 Principles of Democracy
NSS-C.9-12.4 Other Nations and World Affairs
NSS-C.9-12.5 Roles of the Citizen
TECHNOLOGY
GRADES K - 12
NT.K-12.1 Basic Operations and Concepts
NT.K-12.4 Technology Communications Tools
Find more Memorial Day activity ideas in Education World's
Memorial Day
Archive.
Click to return to this week's Lesson Planning article, Remembering
Those Who Gave Their Lives: Lessons for Memorial Day.
Originally published 05/16/2003
Links last updated 11/01/2006
|
