Remembering September 11th...

Today was a very meaningful day for me. I wanted to talk to my students about September 11th and why it is important to us. I wasn't sure how to discuss with 8 years old kids, who weren't even born yet, the devastation of what happened that day. My students shocked me in how interested they were in learning about what happened, and the connections they made to the war we are still fighting. I started out by reading the book September 12. If you have never read this book before, I highly recommend it! It is a book written by a first grade class about the aftermath of the attacks on 9-11. I opened my lesson with reading the book and then we watched a video one of my team memebers found on Teacher Tube. To watch the emotions and sheer interest my students had in the subject was so touching.

Here is the book:

Here is the website link we used:
Teacher Tube 9/11

I ended my lesson by having my students respond about what they learned about the importance of 9-11. I will post their work soon. A lot of them were so passionate about it, they wanted to take it home to complete it! Hooray for learning about being an American and instilling a love of writing!