Veterans Day Program

Veterans Day at my school was so fun! I wanted to really instill in the students

a real sense of pride for their county and to understand how important it is

that we honor the people who serve in the military. I made it a big deal last year

at my school, and it has always been important to me. This year, it took on a new

meaning, since now my husband is in fact, in the military. I know he hasn't been in 

very long, but I know there will be many sacrifices made for this decision down the

road. I was so thrilled to see the students actually excited about Veterans Day.

As it got closer, we started decorating the cafeteria and putting streamers everywhere, etc.

and the students would walk in and say 'ahhh! whoa, cool! wow, etc' it was neat to hear

 them. One teacher has a student in first grade at our school. She came up to me the Monday before

Veterans day and said this, "Mrs. Carl, do you know what Elliot said when I woke him up

this morning?", I said, "What?" She goes, "He said to me-'mommy, do you know what

today is? Its the week of Veterans Day!'" He was so excited and actually knew what

Veterans Day was. I was so glad to hear it, it really made me glad for all the work and hours

I had put into this thing! =) I was happy to do it though, its the least we can do!

So there was a lot of decorating that went on:

Here are all the branches of the military posters I made-don't laugh at the Air Force one!

It's harder than it looks!!

thank you Cricut for the letters above=)

BIG THANK YOU to Jordan for getting on the top of a ladder to put those flag streamers up

when he had a test coming up!!!

This is from the back of the cafeteria looking at the stage.

We made a humongous floor to ceiling American Flag on the stage out of butcher paper!!

One of the teachers at our school did the balloon pillars=)

Red white and blue streamers:

The Dickinson VFW came and let us use their flags for decoration and

they were a great help before it started. Great men! 

The Dickinson High School JR ROTC came to perform for the program!

It was really cool. They had a huge part in making the program very cool.

The Veterans Day Program (yes I see the typo...long story)

People are arriving-it was getting full!!

I had the students fill out a survey back in September of whether or not they had a Veteran

in their family. They filled it out and gave it back to me with a picture. 

I then proceeded to get the address of the Veteran and we send them each a personalized

invitation (on this flag paper) that invited them to come to the event. 

Then we took their picture and I made a slideshow of all the Veterans stating

their name, branch, rank and what student they are related to at our school. We showed

that slideshow after the Poem Reading on there. (There were over 150 pictures!)

passing out programs to the Veterans.

(you can see Phil in the background=)

It was a full house-standing room in the back!!!

Some Veterans are standing b/c they heard their branch being called.

We handed out the 'buddy poppies' to them as well=)

Presentation of the colors at the beginning.

If you look at our 'flag' we used students at our school with parents in the military-

their handprints were used to make the stars=)

Every grade level (PreK-4th grade) performed that night.

And each grade wore a certain color (red, white or blue) 

This is first grade singing 'Oh, I love America' with their A-M-E-R-I-C-A signs!

(sorry I have to make it small!)

Doing their drills with the replica guns. It was really neat when they spun 'em around

and they threw them in the air!

walking up in silence.

The folding of the flag (with taps) was a the end. It was so powerful.

We did this right after the slideshow of all the Veterans. The whole cafeteria was completely

silent, it was so neat. So many Veterans teared up, and were touched. I was so proud of the

students and the great job everyone did!

Yay my husband came, and Phil and Amanda. I was so glad they were there!! 

He brought me beautiful flowers too, which was exciting=)

Guess who else surprised me and came??? Jordan's mom!!! Mrs. Carl

drove down and totally surprised me to come to the program! It was 

so cool when I looked over and saw her in the audience!!! (I have a blog about this

to come soon!=) It was really neat.

At the end of the program, apparently my school had all

pitched in and they presented these beautiful flowers to me !!!

Of course, I had no idea this was coming, and I started crying in front of 

everyone=) It was already an emotional program, and then seeing Mrs. Carl

and everything, I just kind of lost it. But I was pleasantly surprised

by their sweetness! I did not expect anything, so it was very kind of them.

They were beautiful in my classroom.

The flowers from Jordan were beautiful in our home=) 

It was overall a great performance and experience. I couldn't have done such a big

performance without all the help! I was so humbled to see so many people there. 

The Superintendent of my district came, as well as the Director of Fine Arts! So

I was a little stressed, but it turned out so wonderfully! The Veterans Day 

Program is my favorite one to put on all year, but I am thankful now 

it is over=) I can relax.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to thank our military!