Veterans Day (November 11th) is an opportunity to honor and thank those who have served our country in the Armed Forces. Below are several ways you can commemorate the day with your students.   

Use one of our lessons. 

There is still time to incorporate one of our Medal of Honor Character Development Program lessons into your classroom. Check out this earlier blog post about the different options that are available to use at no cost. 

Utilize our video library. 

If you aren’t able to incorporate a full lesson into your day, showing one of our oral history videos is a great option for middle and high school students. For elementary students, we recommend showing our video of Medal of Honor Recipient Gary Beikirch reading “The Wall” by Eve Bunting. Both of these activities can be easily followed up with a discussion about the importance of honoring all who have served our country.  

Write letters. 

Have your students write a letter to a veteran. Operation Gratitude is a great resource for letter writing projects, and their website can be found here. Students can also write letters to one of the 65 living Medal of Honor Recipients. More information about that process can be found here. (Please note that we cannot guarantee a response from the Recipients.) 

Coordinate a visit from a veteran. 

Invite a local veteran or active duty service member to speak to your class either in-person or virtually. Our middle and high school lesson Portrait of a Service Member is a great tool to use in preparation for the visit. 

Take a virtual field trip. 

Take a virtual trip to a museum or memorial. Many national museums and memorials across the country have virtual exhibitions that you can show your students. 

• The National World War I Museum and Memorial: The museum offers a number of online exhibitions on topics including volunteerism during World War I, the end of WWI in 1918, and more. 
• The National World War II Museum: Check out the museum’s educational resources here and learn about the different ways you can utilize their resources from afar.  
• First Division Museum at Cantigny Park: The museum has a collection of resource packets that include reproductions of photographs, newspapers, map, and much more.  
• Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum Complex: The complex offers virtual tours and talks as well as videos on its YouTube channel, oral history interviews with those who served on board the famous aircraft carrier, a searchable database of the Museum’s collection of items, and more. 

• Vietnam Veterans Memorial: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund offers a virtual tour of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall. 

ABOUT THE MEDAL OF HONOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM 

The Medal of Honor Character Development Program is a free resource that teaches courage, commitment, integrity, sacrifice, citizenship, and patriotism to students through educationally grounded lessons developed by teachers for teachers. Both the elementary and secondary resources of the CDP teach students to recognize and exemplify these values, making them useful as Social Emotional Learning resources, as a classroom management system, or as a tool to create a positive and healthy school culture. 

For more lessons revolving around our six core values, visit our website. To stay up-to-date on new lessons and teaching resources, sign up to receive our monthly newsletter.