Remembering the Heros of Memorial Day Lesson Plan

I remember Memorial Day as the day we went around our yard, cutting armfuls of spring peonies and lilac that we then arranged in tall juice can bouquets. With solemn ritual we then drove to the graveyard by our country church and "decorated" the graves of the war dead and also of our beloved friends and relatives. In our segment of rural Indiana, the holiday also went by the name, Decoration Day to commemorate the decoration of graves. I don't remember picnics or special parades or lesson plans on why we celebrated this day. It seems we just grew up knowing that on this one day, we honored those who had died that we loved.

As an adult, I lived in communities with Memorial Day parades and Memorial day sales and of course once we moved to Indianapolis, the Memorial Day picnic that was associated with the Indianapolis 500. The day became more about parties and shopping than about memories. We no longer lived close to a cemetery where we really knew any of the heros buried there. Sure, we might use this day to put out our flag for the summer season and to have a red, white and blue floral arrangment on the picnic table. But that was the extent of our honoring the holiday for what it was conceived to be.

And then we began homeschooling. Suddenly every holiday or special event was a time for school. We began to explore each special day as a learning opportunity which meant that suddenly we were doing special things to commemorate Memorial Day and those activities helped our entire family remember what this day was meant to be.

This lesson plan is derived from some of that learning and is appropriate for ages 8-14 or older. It depends on you and your students. Adapt as needed for age range.

Lesson Objective for Remembering Our Heros

Students will understand why we celebrate Memorial Day by exploring the history behind the holiday, what makes someone a hero and how they can be heros in their world. Students also explore how they can personally honor someone they consider to be a hero.

History of Memorial Day

This great website really delves into the history of Memorial Day. Have your student read it, checking out some of the links and then have a discussion group conversation with them on what they discovered. You are checking for reading comprehension, so if you want you can make up a simple study guide question and answer sheet from the website. I often did this for my homeschool students.

Sample questions might include when was the first Memorial Day held?
Who decided that we should have a Memorial Day?
Who was General John Logan?

Reading the website yourself and picking out those key points that you consider to be important will give you good reading comprehension questions. If your student needs help with the reading, consider sitting with them and just reading from the site and talking with them as you read. Have them practice writing a few key facts as you read.

Why the focus on soldiers who have died in service

Throughout our history, the United States has found itself involved in over 50 wars, including those on our land and overseas. Since Memorial Day is about commemorating those veterans who have lost their life in wars, the next activity involves the student understanding a timeline of those wars. Timelines allow a student to place history in context and by labeling the numbers of men and women veterans who died in each conflict, they can begin to grasp the scope and loss of each war. Again, consider your student and their ability to handle these emotional facts. For younger students you might just briefly highlight the "important or well-known wars". The Revolutionary War, War of 1812, World War 1 and 11, Viet Nam War. For older students have them read about and place on their timeline other lesser known wars.

Memorials and why we have them

After the students have completed their timelines, it's time for the next stage of honoring war dead. I do this the same way my parents had so long ago for us. We make up some bouquets and we go to the cemetery and we place some flowers, perhaps a few flags on some graves of soldiers. If you don't know where some might be, check with your cemetery organization or your local VA organization. They will be able to help you locate those graves.

We wear red poppies (a tradition for Memorial Day) and standing by the graveside, we read a Memorial Day Poem and place our flowers in honor. This might be a good time to say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing a patriotic song and have a small flag to plant at the grave also. All of these activities require the student to know some basic facts about their country. So practicing the Pledge, singing some songs ahead and learning the words and understanding what the flag is are important pre-learning activities before they make their field trip to the grave.

In addition to the grave site visit, I also have my students look at some other Memorials to War Dead. Your city most likely has one, or your cemetery.

The Viet Nam Wall And the Hero Wall

Because our family is very peace oriented, I want them to understand the concepts of service and sacrifice, but I also want them to understand that Peace is always a goal, not only for our national politics, but also, more importantly for our personal lives and interactions. So as we have explored honoring our war dead and exploring the concepts of their sacrifice in American Wars, we next study an area that is especially important to us.

My brother was killed in Viet Nam and so the Viet Nam Wall is a very special Memorial to us for many reasons. As a peace activist during that time, I remember the conflict so vividly and during this stage of the lesson plan I usually bring in that personal story. Many families were touched by the Viet Nam War, but now during this time, families are also being touched by the Iraq and Afghanistan War.

This next activity focuses on learning about the Viet Nam Wall Memorial and then we talk about how soldiers are still dying in wars right now. I ask them how can we honor those who are still fighting right now and those families making that sacrifice.

We begin my exploring what the Viet Nam Wall is at their website. When in Washington D.C. we went to see the actual wall. Again, I do the reading comprehension study questions about the subject. Then we do two very special activities that are related.

I ask them the following series of questions.

Why do we honor our veterans?
How do you show respect for your country?
Is peace hard?
What is peace?
What is tolerance?
Veterans have died for our country's values, to protect our way of government and life. How can we honor their sacrifice?
What is sacrifice?
Name some forms of sacrifice besides dying?
How can we sacrifice for our country?
How can we honour our country?
What are the ways we can serve our country besides serving in armed services?
How can we promote peace in our daily lives?

Again, adapt these questions for the age of your student, but the idea is for them to understand that we must and should honor those veterans who have died in war, but that we can also serve in other ways.

Then students write a paragraph to answer one of those questions. I have them type or print in clear legible style their paragraph. After it has been proofed and edited to fix any grammar or spelling errors, I cut around their paragraph, tape it to a red "brick" that we have decorated to look like part of a brick wall.

Since I usually do this activity with a group of students, this works best for groups, but homeschool students could do more than one to create their wall.

We then mount each of the paragraphs and arrange them on a wall to create a wall of Memory. Scattered among the student's writings, are pictures that we have collected. Some of them are of our own soldiers that we know personally. Some are pen pals. Some are old pictures of famous soldiers that have died in various wars. And then finally we begin to collect photos of other heros, people who have served the world in their own way.

Each child gets to bring in one person that they consider is a hero. It might be someone famous like Mother Teresa or a sports star. I try to encourage them to know that a hero, is someone who sacrifices something to help his or her fellow man.

As each student adds his or her hero to the wall, they create another tag on white paper with a word that describes what trait their hero had. Examples would be peace, honor, respect, tolerance, compassion, loyalty, hard work, faith, etc. Encourage them to put into one word why they think their hero deserves to be remembered on Memorial Day.

Letters to Soldiers

Our final activity is to write a letter to a soldier serving somewhere in the world. You can find out how to do this at
this website, A Million Thanks. Just follow the link that says How to send letters. Again, this is a writing activity that will need to be adapted to fit the level of your student's writing ability. For a young child, a simple drawing with Thank you will be good. Perhaps have them draw a flag to associate our country with the letter they are sending.

Party

Of course all learning should be celebrated by parties so having a traditional Memorial Day party is a good way to end this activity. But at the party, taking a moment to say Thank You with all the guests gathered gives honor to those who died for our right to have that party. We should never forget or take for granted that sacrifice, just as we should honor all the heros in our lives.

Resources Used

America's Wars Timeline
The Viet Nam Wall
A Million Thanks