Morning Announcements Companion Pack

Yay!  I have finally finished my very FIRST UNIT for Teachers Pay Teachers. :)  I am pretty excited because I have been working on this for a few weeks now.  Soo...I present to you...

Click on the picture to go to my TPT store! :)

I created this Morning Announcements Companion Pack because I felt that it was important for my students to understand the meaning behind the Pledge of Allegiance and "The Star Spangled Banner" since we say and sing them each  morning. 

This pack starts of with 2 graphic organizers to help students understand how they should behave during the announcements.  I know this may seem trivial, but I think that it is important to restate those expectations at the beginning of the year.  The first is "How Should We Behave During the Morning Announcements?"  This would be great for a whole group discussion activity.  The second is a picture of a little stick guy that I made up with arrows from the eyes, mouth, hands, legs, and feet.  The students can write what each of these body parts should look like during the announcements.

Then, there are the activities for The Pledge of Allegiance.  There is a color copy, B&W copy, and a plain no color copy of the Pledge, then a History of the Pledge in color and B&W, then an activity where the students write what each phrase of the pledge means.  I have included the two different types of lines.

Next, are the National Anthem activities.  There is a color, B&W, and no color copy of the National Anthem, then color and B&W versions of the History of the Star Spangled Banner.  For activities, I took some of the more difficult vocabulary and created a worksheet to help you discuss what these words mean, then you can practice ABC order.

There are two different writing prompts inspired by "...and the home of the brave." that focus on bravery and what that means.  Again--two different types of lines on those writing prompts.  This is really open ended which will be good for any gifted students or high performers.  Students can also make their own Star Spangled Banner book by illustrating each line of the song.

The last set of activities focuses on creating a Class Flag, Class Pledge, and Class Anthem.  You could have all of the students complete all of the activities OR you could do small collaborative groups where one person creates the flag, one the pledge, and one the anthem OR you could do this differentiated in small groups.  All these activities also come with both sets of writing lines.

As an added bonus to this unit, I have included some posters with the words to various Patriotic Songs.  You could pick and choose which songs you'd like to introduce, but this is something that I would like to do right after the announcements.  I have a CD that I bought from Amazon several years ago, that is unfortunately not being produced anymore, so I'm not sure if you could buy it or not.  I do know that if you search online, you can find instrumental versions of these songs if you don't have your own recordings.  I know that some of your class populations and/or administration may not like some of the words on some of the songs--some do mention God--so use those at your own discretion.

I'm really excited to give away my unit, so here's how you can get it...2 easy steps!

1.  Follow my TPT store {HERE}

2.  Leave a comment on my blog WITH your email address!

That's it! :)  I'll be giving away my unit for 24 hours, soooo you have until Saturday at 6:00pm eastern to leave me a comment and then I will try to email it to you!  It's kind of a large file, so make sure your email has space to receive it. :)

Good luck!