Let's Learn About...Soldiers!

Soldiers seem to be the invisible heroes.  My son loves learning and seeing police officers, firefighters and paramedics in action and is constantly asking about them, their day-to-day responsibilities and, of course, their trucks.  Soldiers...not so much.  This became evident when we were at the Cowboys game last week.  Before the start of the game a few soldiers propelled from the gigantic screen and Grayson (and I) were amazed.  

It was then that I realized I had never talked to Grayson about soldiers (shame on me) and how they serve and protect our country.  In all honestly, we were just never exposed to soldiers as often as others that work within our community.  So, just in time for Veteran's Day, Grayson and I will be learning about soldiers and how they protect our country.

I want to share with you what we plan to do to better understand soldiers and their responsibilites.  This is the first post I will be writing which will include my plan for teaching my little preschooler about soldiers.  I will then post how the activities went and any changes, extensions and other resources we incorporated.

Let's Hear it:

Nonfiction books are the best to use when teaching about jobs or community helpers, in my opinion.  So, we are going to read I Want to be a Soldier (link below) and discuss soldiers' jobs and responsibilities.
        

We are also going to learn my "American Soldiers" song and how to properly salute (video link below).  We will hold our salute for the verse "American soldier we thank you" and place our arm back down as we shout "Yes,we do".

If your learner is an emergent reader they can read my I am a Soldier book which focuses on the sight word have.  Have your learner color the pictures and trace the sight words in marker to make it their own.

Let's See it:

I want to focus on the various ways soldier do their job and resources they use.  Since Grayson is into all forms of transportation, we are going to focus on that part of the military.  I created mats and visuals of different vehicles, planes, helicopters and boats for Grayson to sort.    

 

Let's Do it:

As an extension of the activity above Grayson is going to choose a type of transportation that we will create from different objects around the house.  My goal will be to actually make the object move the way it should...we shall see!

We are also going to show our appreciation by creating and sharing a care package.  We will begin with brainstorming things a soldier might want when they are away from their home and family.  We are going to use Operation Gratitude to send our packages that we create.  I also found a site that gives you ideas of what to donate to soldiers and how to ship your packages!

Resources:

You can find these activities at my TpT Store in my American Soldier Mini-Pack and I am also offering my American Soldiers Coloring Page as a FREEBIE below!  Enjoy