Memorial Day is one of our more complex holidays, both in and outside of the classroom. On the one hand, it’s a time of family gatherings and celebration. Many of us look forward to annual backyard barbecues and beach trips—not to mention sleeping in on the long weekend. However, the core of Memorial Day is a somber one—it is meant, first and foremost, to be a time of remembrance, a day to honor our country’s fallen soldiers.
For that reason, I’ve always taken care to broach the subject of Memorial Day carefully in my classroom. It’s important that the kids have fun and enjoy the lesson—but I also believe it’s equally important to address the true meaning of Memorial Day with sensitivity and compassion. For me, that balance has always been easiest to achieve through the magic of the writing process. The following creative writing prompts both engage student curiosity and explore the deeper themes of the holiday—making them perfect for celebrating Memorial Day with your 5th grade students.
Prompt #1: “Write a story from the perspective of a veteran coming home from war.”
Writing from someone else’s perspective is one of the most effective ways to encourage both creativity and empathy in your students. In this case, asking your 5th-graders to write from the perspective of a soldier coming home after a war invites them to consider the people Memorial Day honors—both the soldiers who make it home and the ones who don’t. It also opens the door to exploring and discussing the difficulties veterans face when they do return, and whether or not they are being given the support and respect they deserve.
PROJECT IDEA
For a more in-depth writing project, begin first by asking your students to use real-life facts and figures to flesh out the details of their stories. Watch or recommend age-appropriate documentaries and interviews featuring war vets and their experiences, both at war and at home. Ask your students to fully define their characters before they start writing. What is their veteran’s name? Which war did they fight in? Which branch of the military did they serve in, and what was their rank? Once their stories are written, edited and revised, ask them to draw a portrait of their veteran in uniform. Finally, be sure to publish your students’ work in a professionally bound and printed hardcover classbook.
Prompt #2: “Why does someone choose to join the military?”
Similar to the activity above, this Memorial Day writing prompt also encourages empathy, but in a more subtle fashion. Instead of plopping your students feet-first into an army vet’s shoes, this exercise asks them to flex their opinion writing muscles in order to understand and explain what might motivate someone to join the military. It’s great writing practice on a number of levels, but more than that, it’s a chance to get your students thinking not just about what the soldiers we honoring on Memorial Day do for their country, but why they do it.
PROJECT IDEA
To dive deeper into this topic, ask your 5th grade students to narrow their focus down to a specific person and describe that person’s motivations in detail. Encourage them to talk to a veteran in the family if possible—or, if there is no one they can speak to in person, ask them to research a real-life war vet and use the information they discover to inform their responses. After writing, ask them to draw or provide photographs of their chosen veteran and publish their writing and accompanying imagery in a memorable and unique classbook project they’ll be proud to have been a part of.
Prompt #3: “How would you explain Memorial Day to a younger student?”
Many of us—especially as kids—enjoy the festivities of Memorial Day without pausing much to think about the meaning behind what we do. This writing prompt is all about doing exactly that—stopping and taking time to really understand Memorial Day itself. What is the purpose of it? How do we celebrate it, and why do we celebrate it that way? Specifically asking your students to write as if they are explaining these things to a younger student builds their confidence as writers by placing them in the authoritative “teacher” role. It also provides an opportunity for them to practice refining the clarity of their writing, as they have to make sure their explanations are clear enough that even a younger reader will understand them.
PROJECT IDEA
To make this lesson plan even more engaging, consider making it interactive. After your students have written and revised their explanations, see if you can share their explanations with actual younger students in another classroom. It could be fun to arrange a time and place for your classes to meet and discuss Memorial Day in person—but if that sounds a bit overwhelming, you might also consider simply “sending” your students’ responses to another class to review, edit, and return for revisions. For a personal touch, ask your students to draw or provide photos of themselves and their families celebrating the holiday together. Finally, collect and publish their work in a thoughtful Memorial Day themed classbook.
Capturing the Meaning of Memorial Day in Writing
Writing from, or about, the perspectives of soldiers can give your students insight into the people we celebrate on Memorial Day, while writing about how we celebrate can help them better understand why we celebrate it. Whatever you and your students choose to write about for Memorial Day, above all else, make it memorable.
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Better yet, make it last. Publishing your students’ work in a classbook creates a keepsake you, your kids and their families will cherish. Whether they choose to give their book to a beloved veteran as a token of their appreciation or keep it on their own bookshelves, one thing’s for sure: their books, and the memories that go with them, will last for many a Memorial Day to come.
For more thoughtful writing prompts and project ideas, go ahead and check out our online teacher’s lounge, and be sure to sign up for your free publishing kit!
Image sources: Lead image via Pixabay; Image 1 via OpenClipart.org