Celebrating Veteran's Day-Upper Elementary to Middle School

It is Monday and the perfect day to find an ideal mentor text to share with your students.  This week's focus is Veteran's Day.  Whether you have a special veteran in your life or not, this is one of those holidays that is essential to share with our students.  We must help them understand all that our veterans have sacrificed for our country and continue to do so in order to maintain our freedoms.  So here is my idea for you...

While there are a number of great reads and read alouds, this is one that is most meaningful to my upper elementary students because it involves a dog.  I am not sure about you, but the majority of my students are pet owners and animal lovers.  This text is engaging because it is about a feral dog who forms a bond with Major Brian Dennis, a Marine fighting in Iraq.  When Dennis' troop is relocated, Nubs travels over 70 miles to find his special human friend.  It is a story about the kindness of a soldier and the strong-will of a dog who is seeking the perfect owner.

While this text does not give great insight into the life of a soldier at war, it is the perfect place to start.  In addition to the text, so my students would be more informed about the work of veterans, I created this reader's theater fun pack based on the experience of my step-father.  With the sharing of this mentor text and the opportunity for students to perform a reader's theater about a soldier's real-life experience from enlisting to protecting our country, this is the perfect ELA combination.

Check out my 16-page reader's theater fun pack with fluency work, reader response, context clue word work, writing, and research by clicking on the image...

I would love to hear what you do to keep your students aware of the significance of our veterans.