Recognizing 9/11

Tomorrow we will be recognizing Patriots Day and discussing the events of September 11th.  Since the only students in our school that were alive during this tragic event are 6th graders, and they were just mere infants at the time, it can be difficult to decide how much or how little to teach.  I've decided to use an activity that I did last year and a book I discovered this month at our public library.

We will begin with a brainstorming activity to see what the students already know.  They will write things they know about the events of September 11th on a sticky note, share it, and place it on the white board.

I had planned to read America Under Attack: September 11, 2001: The Day The Towers Fell

This book is fairly long so I was going to skip around and hit the highlights of the four major plane crashes, but after reading Herding Kats in Kindergarten I decided to go with this awesome BrainPop video that hits the highlights without the unnecessary details.

As I'm reading we will pause at various spots (marked by my lovely sticky notes:) and fill out the sections that apply on these fab worksheets I found at What the Teacher Wants!

 To wrap up we will review what we learned and go over the homework for that night.  When the students return on Wednesday we will use our homework and our worksheet from the previous day to create these fact flags.

The students will write 4 facts they learned during our lesson about the events on September 11th.  I desperately wish I had the book September 12: We knew everything would be all right.  It would be the perfect book for this activity, but I can't find a copy and it's too late to buy one.....next year!

What are you doing to recognize Patriot's Day?