Are you doing anything to commemorate the 9/11 attack? If so, what? Last year I showed a Scholastic video. It's hard to approach the topic in a kid-friendly way, without addressing the whys or hows in detail. Not sure what I'll say this year, but I feel like it is worth talking about. Kids should know their history.
A FB friend of mine recommended episode #11 of Reading Rainbow on Netflix. It is about 9/11 and spends a lot of time talking to the kids that attend school down the street from Ground Zero. I haven't checked it out yet.
Discovery Ed has a video...I have not checked it out yet. Our school does a whole commerative assembly every year. Our 4th grade sing "Proud to be an American" and the rest of the school has been practicing "this land is your land". Our 3-5th graders write essays on why they are proud to be an American or resident of our city or student in our school. 7 are chosen to read their essays in front of the school. Each child is given an American flag I will spend some time discussing the event with my second graders tomorrow before attending the assembly.
I'll be reading 14 Cows for America. We'll also be reading some newspaper articles that focus on heroes of 9/11.
Here in NJ, we still have to be cognizant of the fact that a family member or friend may have died on 9/11, and that virtually every train station that went into NYC had cars in the parking lot, ready to take the owner home, where the owner never showed up. I remember those days, those parking lots, as the first real monuments. Those cars survived, parked in towns of all sizes, while the search for survivors or victims went on under the bright lights that saw the site of the attack. Slowly, at first, the cars were removed, as owners did arrive to claim them, but it made the cars that stayed exactly where they had been parked that morning ever more somber, as a silent tribute to those who never returned to their homes. Of course, eventually extended family would go to fetch the car, once all hope was lost that the loved one was still alive and would be coming home. The sight of those parking lots with their emply cars has stayed with me. It is hard to remember, but even harder to forget.
The majority of my students were either born in 2001 or were still in diapers when these events occurred. I know my Social Studies counterpart will discuss it, but I will as well if the students bring it up. I remember so much of that day, but in a weird way because I had no access to a television until the afternoon. It unfolded so slowly for me because I simply couldn't fathom it.
I talk/walk my students through my own day. Like Cat I remember it incredibly vividly despite being on the entire other side of the country. I feel like it helps to personalize it for my kids who were all born after the event at this point without trivializing it.
I found a site that had lessons about reaction. We are comparing the speeches by FDR & Bush after pearl harbor & the 9/11. One year I had students come up with 5-6 questions to ask someone what their day was like on that day. We are in Midwest.
None of my students had been born yet. One of my 3rd graders was telling me all these facts that he's learned about 9/11 and it was really strange to me to hear him talking about it historically. He actually said "a really long time ago," while talking about it. At first I was thinking "whoa, whoa, whoa, it was not a long time ago," but then I realized that really has been 14 years. It's hard to believe. I remember very few days from that long ago with such clarity.
There's a cute book written by a 1st grade class called September 12. It's not quite as relevant now that it's been so many years, but the book is about how bad things happened on September 11, but September 12 came and they knew everything would be alright. It's a good book to follow up a tough discussion and not leave the kids feeling scared or worried. http://www.amazon.com/September-12th-Everything-Would-Right/dp/043944246X
I just previewed this video holy cow the emotions of that day were brought straight back. Not sure I can watch it again. LOL
Yeah. That is one of the memories that sticks with me - we had to pick up my dad at the train station on 9/11 and the weekend after, we drove by the train station. A few cars that were there that night were still parked there - they looked like they hadn't been moved for days. The 9/11 Television archive has a lot of footage from that day. It is great that someone sought to preserve this. The footage can be difficult and unusual to watch. https://archive.org/details/sept_11_tv_archive Heck, I didn't even know the attacks had happened until 3:30 PM that day - the district did not want to tell the sixth graders what happened and they cut off the internet for the entire district so nobody could go online that day. When my mom got us home, my dad eventually got home, I don't remember when - but he said it took a while. Then at 5:20 PM, my parents and brother were talking about something - none of them were looking at the TV. I was and I saw WTC 7 collapse - I told my parents "Look! That building just fell!" My parents thought it was just them repeating footage of the attacks for the millionth time that day. Then the anchor confirmed it was not footage being repeated, but it was WTC 7 collapsing. 9/11 is definitely one of my flashbulb memories - and one of my first very detailed days that I remember. Ever since like 2002, I can remember most days with detail.
I was assigned to watch a video with my classes. Another teacher ended up showing that video but on the sidebar I saw a clip of the actual tv footage from that day. I ended up showing that and we did a great lesson comparing the reporters' attitudes and questions when the first tower was hit vs the second. We also talked about tone. I tried to walk them through my day, because I was in middle school social studies when the first tower was hit. We watched it almost all day -- I still remember my English teacher turning off the TV and making us do work, and my best friend to this day hasn't forgiven him. The towers fell during that time. I encouraged my students to share. One of my students said that his uncle was a pilot who was killed so we said a prayer for him. Like vickilyn some of my students have relatives that were in New York, or supposed to be on the plan or in the city when it happened. I also incorporated the Patriot Act and how life has changed for us in the wake of terrorism. My students are becoming young adults in this completely different world than before 9/11. I wanted them to understand that terrorism doesn't just affect governments and soldiers; it affects them too.
Someone today asked me where I was 14 years ago. It was a little bit after 9, so the answer was at street level, after coming down 88 floors of WTC2. Incidentally, a lot of those cars were likely later retrieved by their owners -- it was difficult making it back across the river that day.
My town lost people at Ground Zero. Our middle school walked to the town memorial in time to be there to recognize the time the first plane hit. In my elementary we read appropriate kids lit picture books. Kids know more then youd think. My heart is sad tonight.
I ended up just mentioning it and talking about how it was a day for respect and being thankful for the rights we have in our country. Some kids wanted to add some of the more gruesome details, but I stopped them. I only said that a few thousand people died when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center. Some kids wanted to talk about the planes being hijacked, but there's a fine line between teaching young kids history and scaring them.
Our elementary kids did something like the following in honor of 9/11 (I don't know if I have the grade-levels right and/or included all of the activities): - 5th grade - service projects around our school (e.g. small landscape projects, cleaning windows - it was so cute to open my blinds today and see a little guy cleaning my window - we are K-12 in one building) 4th grade - washed fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars 3rd grade - picked up trash 2nd - K - made cards for all of our area police officers, firemen, and EMTs.
