Looking For Math Activities For Veterans Day.

 

First off, I would like to thank all the veterans who put their lives at risk to protect our country.  I thank my father who fought in two different wars so others wouldn't have to go.  He has passed but I still remember.  Now on to the topic of math activities for Veterans Day.  I found a few that were geared for older students but most of the ones I found are for lower elementary and most of those were standard worksheets with a few pics of Veterans Day thrown in.

I did find a couple of things for older students but it was only because I knew where to look.  I wanted free resources because most teachers have a limited budget.  One can always find activities that cost but sometimes it is harder if you want it for free.  

One site that had a few things was my reliable Yummy Math. They have a lovely one from 2019 which has students reading and interpreting data.  Students are asked to read two maps, one has the veteran populations by states and the other has the percentage of veterans among the adult population per state.  So it gives the number of veterans and the percentage they make of the population.  Rather than giving specific numbers, the states are color coded based on the populations and the colors are ranges.  At the end, there are three questions designed to have students read and interpret the information.  This is an area that most students do not get enough practice.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has a blog entry with 5 suggestions of activities for the classroom for Memorial Day but they can be adjusted for Veterans Day..  Although many of the activities suggested are for upper elementary, most can be adjusted slightly for middle school or high school.  All of the activities are more project based and they require students to think about things One activity has students design a parade float while determining how much they need of wood, paper, etc to create the whole float and then calculate the cost of building the float.

Another activity has students creating a museum where they have to think about the location, what they want in the museum and they even have to consider the budget the have to work with.  They then have to determine the cost of each ticket and the number of tickets needed to be sold to cover the budget.  There is also a project where students calculate everything for a cookout.  They have to decide the number of people, the number of buns, dogs, hamburgers, etc needed and the cost.  There are two more, one on fireworks and one on symbols.  Check it out and notice it won't take much to adjust it to Veterans Day.

These are the two sites I found with decent activities for middle school and high school.  Check the sites out and let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.