In my Introduction to Education class, I recently taught a mini-lesson to my classmates. I chose to teach a first-grade lesson about Veterans Day and how to write letters to honor veterans.
I started my lesson by explaining that Veterans Day is a day to honor people who have served in the military and helped protect our country. To help first graders understand this, I read a short poem with simple words that summed up the meaning of Veterans Day perfectly.
After the poem, I moved into the writing part of the lesson. I reminded students that a sentence needs a capital letter, spaces between words, and punctuation at the end. I shared an example sentence like:
“Thank you for your service.”
For the activity, students wrote short letters to veterans. I gave them sentence starters such as “Dear Veteran,” “Thank you for…,” and “You are brave because…” to help guide their writing. I also explained how these letters can help veterans feel appreciated for what they have done.
Teaching this mini-lesson was a meaningful experience for me. It made me even more excited about becoming a future teacher.
