Author: Margot Theis Raven (also author
of
Angels in the Dust,
another HSS unit) Illustrator: Mike Benny Summary: Three children set a special
white table in memory of service members fallen or missing in action, and
especially in honor of their Uncle John, a POW in Vietnam. ISBN: 1-58536-216-6
to the memory of my father (WWII) and
brother (Vietnam), both Purple Heart recipients;
in honor of all my ancestors who
fought for America's freedoms;
in honor of my husband, a Cold War
veteran;
and especially to the men and women
(and their families!) serving right now!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
This unit would go with the following holidays:
Veterans Day (Nov. 11; honors all veterans, particularly those still
living), Memorial Day (the last day of
May; honors veterans no longer living),
Independence Day (July 4), or National
MIA/POW Recognition Day (3rd Friday of September).
Social Studies
Geography -- Vietnam:
While the story does not take place in Vietnam, it does concern a tradition
that began during the Vietnam War and so we'll use this opportunity to learn
more about Vietnam.
Vietnam (also written VietNam and Viet Nam) is an S-shaped country in
southeast Asia (review the continents). Help your student locate it on a
map or globe. First have him point out China, then show him that Vietnam is
south of China. Point out Laos and Cambodia to the west and the South China
Sea to the east. Vietnam also owns two archipelagos (groups of islands) in
the South China Sea called Hoang Sa and Truang Sa.
The capital of Vietnam is Hanoi. It is a small country, about the size of
California. It is mostly hilly and mountainous. Northern Vietnam has a
monsoon climate. It contains the Red, the Lo, and the Chay Rivers. Southern
Vietnam only has two seasons: rainy and dry. It has the Mekong River,
which started in China and then flowed through Laos and Cambodia before
flowing through southern Vietnam. In Vietnam, the Mekong River splits into
nine tributaries or branches, and so it is known as the Nine Dragons (Cuu
Long) River.
It has a large population, despite it's small size. The Vietnamese have
many religions and many places to worship, but most of the people of Vietnam
are without Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Pray for them this week,
that they would come to know the One True God and accept his son Jesus as
their personal savior.
Many of the Vietnamese people where triangle-shaped hats that are made of
bamboo. These hats are called non la.
Veterans Day is a day set aside to honor
and thank all men and women who are serving or have served in military,
whether during war time or during a time of peace. It is mainly for men
and women who are living, to recognize that while they did not die in the
line of duty, they too sacrificed much for our freedom. We often also take
this time to honor and remember those military men and women who have died.
(Though Memorial Day is when we really honor the memory of those military
men and women who died in the line of duty or as a result of wounds
sustained during active duty.)
Near the end of World War I, which was also known as "The Great War," the
fighting troops (the Allied Nations and Germany) agreed temporarily
stop fighting one another. When two enemies agree to stop fighting it is
called an armistice. The
governments of those fighting will later sign a peace treaty to formally
stop the war. The World War I armistice went into effect the 11th hour of
the 11th day of the 11th month....11:00 a.m. November 11, 1918. This day
became known as Armistice Day. The following year, President Wilson
proclaimed the first Veterans Day (November 11, 1919) with the following
words:
To
us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with
solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service
and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which
it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to
show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…
And so each year, on Veterans Day, we thank those we know who served in the
military. We tell them how much we appreciate that they served so that we
can continue to live with freedoms few other countries have.
(Note to parent: the correct use is Veterans Day, not Veteran's Day or
Veterans' Day.)
Click here to print out
a Veterans Day Teacher's Guide from the VA's office. (You will need Adobe
Reader to access these PDF files.) These files are for public school
teachers and principals, but you may find something useful for your own
students. Personally, I felt the student packet for Grades 4-7 was the only
thing worth printing for me and my children. It has some history, a maze,
an "unscramble the words" puzzle (a great go along for this book), the
Pledge of Allegiance and respect of the flag, etc. The student packet for
grades 8-12 is similar, only more detail (reading) and does not have the
maze and puzzles.
Branches of the United States Military:
Can your student name any of the five branches of the American military? Four
of them were mentioned in the story. The five branches are: Army, Navy, Air
Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. Collectively these are known as our Armed
Forces. All these different branches help keep us safe and protect our
freedoms every day. During times of war, they help defend. During times of
peace, they help keep the peace. During times of trouble (like earthquakes,
famines, etc), they provide help to the people of the area affected. The Army
does this over land, the Navy over the sea, the Air Force from the air.
The Marines are a separate division of the Navy and fight on land or sea. The
Coast Guard helps to protect (or guard) our coast lines.
History -- Vietnam War: Despite the
various feelings about the war, your child should know about the Vietnam War
(Conflict, whatever). What is to follow here is my personal feelings about the
war and the script I will use with my children. You may need to adjust for your
views.
The Vietnam War happened about 40-50 years ago. Vietnam was two countries then,
North Vietnam and South Vietnam. At first they fought for their independence
from France. After that war was over, North Vietnam wanted to rule South
Vietnam. America tried to help the south by sending some of our military men
over. We helped them for more than ten years! Most of the men who went over to
fight were young, just out of high school and many of them died while trying to
help the South Vietnamese.
As with any war, some soldiers get captured by the enemy. When the soldiers get
captured, they are called prisoners of war,
or POWs. Sometimes, some of the soldiers never come home and we don't know what
happened to them. Those men are said to be
missing in action, and are called MIAs.
In the end, we weren't able stop all the fighting, and our American troops left
Vietnam. South Vietnam had to surrender to the North.
There are many people we know who were in that war, including your Uncle Larry.
During the war, many Americans were mad that our men went over to help and that
they fought for so long, and when the men came home they were treated unfairly.
They were only doing what their president asked and were trying to help the
Vietnamese people to have some of the freedoms we have. But when they came
home, they were not treated with the respect and honor that veterans deserve.
Like Katie in the story, just the fact that the men fought when asked by their
country makes them a hero in my book! But many people didn't think they were
heroes. It's really sad because those men left their homes and families and
went to Vietnam to fight because that's what our government asked them to do.
History of the White Table: Read the
author's note at the end of the book.
Websites to read more about the book and the "the white table" tradition.
call to
duty -- helping your country by doing whatever needs done (whether by
being a soldier or by helping out at home) honor -- as a verb ("to honor a
soldier's pure heart"), to show great respect or esteem fate -- outcome, final result sorrow -- a deep distress, sadness,
or regret especially for the loss of someone or something loved rescue mission -- when a group of
soldiers go across enemy lines to bring back some other soldiers who have
been captured. enemy lines -- an area that the
enemy controls wounds -- injuries persuaded -- urged or pleaded gratitude -- the state of being
grateful, thankful, or appreciative freedom -- being free or liberation
from slavery or from the power of another birthright -- a right, privilege, or
possession to which a person is entitled by birth liberty -- the state of being free
or the positive enjoyment of various rights and privileges
Prepared Crossword Puzzle
*note- if the words have a space (such as enemy_lines), there is also a
space in the puzzle.
Word Association: Help your student
make a list of words that describe or words that you associate with the word
veteran. Some words might be: hero, brave, honor, freedom, courage, soldier,
respect. Afterward, if you can, print out
the page from this PDF file
that has the "unscramble the word" puzzle.
Italics: Your child might notice several uses of italics throughout the story. If
you've studied the use of italics for the names of ships, you might want to
remind your student of that use of italics and ask if there are a bunch of ship
names in this book?! No, there other reasons we might use italics. Just like
the author did in this book. In this book the author used italics:
1) to differentiate between the main
story and the story Mama tells about Uncle John. The author chose to show
the story of Uncle John in italics -- it makes it easier to see when the
children interrupt Mama, doesn't it?
2) to emphasize "It was just a little white table..." The author uses this
phrase at the beginning of almost every page in the story.
3) to emphasize a particular word. When the author does this, we change
the tone of our voice slightly (called inflection) when reading it aloud to
be able to hear the emphasis.
"But I didn't know what I -- a
ten-year-old-girl -- could ever put
on the table that was as important as each veteran's gift of freedom to me."
"And that's when I knew what I could put on the table: My promise to put the words from my
heart into a little book
about America's White Table."
4) to indicate the thoughts of a person. In this case, the author chose to
use italics in a slightly different way -- to give a 'voice' to the soldiers
who died in the war.
"Remember
us, please.... we are real people like your Uncle John and
Mike who left families and friends, homes and
dreams of our own to protect your birthright of liberty from
disappearing as easily as sunlight from a glass."
Initialisms: Our story gives and
defines two initialisms: MIA and POW. An initialism is a special type of
abbreviation in which only the first letter (or first few letters) of each word
in a group of words is used to abbreviate the phrase. Initialisms are
pronounced by saying each letter.
To help him understand how an initialism is made and pronounced, have your
student write out the words missing in action.
Then have him underline the first letter of each of the words (ie, the
initials). Next, have him write the letters he underlined, but use a capital
letter for each (MIA). Now have him read each letter aloud.....em eye ay.
Have him repeat for prisoner of war, POW.
Intialisms have been used for a long time. Have you ever seen a picture of
Jesus on the cross, with the letters INRI posted above him? The letters stand
for the Latin phrase, Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum ("Jesus the Nazarene,
King of the Jews"). Click
here to see The
Crucifixion of Christ, which clearly
shows the acronym. Here
is another.
Has your student ever seen the ichthys (Christian fish) symbol?
The word ichthys is an initialism, although each letter represents a
Greek word.
I is the first letter of the word Jesus in Greek: Ιησούς
CH are the first letters (in Greek one letter) of the word Christos
(Χριστóς), Greek for Christ
TH are the first letters (in Greek one letter) of the word THeou (Θεoύ),
genetive case of Θεóς, Greek for God
Y is the first letter for Yios (῾Υιóς), Greek for son. (the "῾" (the is
called a rough breathing mark) here is a part of the vowel, and is not
included in ICHTHUS)
S is the first letter for Soter (Σωτήρ), Greek for saviour.
So the ichthys means
Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior
(FYI ... an acronym is a special type of initialism in which the letters spell a
word that can be said, instead of saying just saying each individual letter.
Some examples are: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration),
NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), UNICEF (United
Nation's International Children's Emergency Fund), and SCUBA (self-contained
underwater breathing apparatus).
Interview a Veteran: If you know a
veteran, you may wish to have your student interview him or her. Help your
student write out questions beforehand. Help your child understand that
sometimes soldier see some awful things and that it's hard for them to talk
about.
Click here for sample questions.
Most veterans would be honored to tell of their service.
If you have an older student and you know a veteran who served in war time,
particularly WWII, I strongly urge you to have your student interview the
veteran. We are rapidly losing our WWII veterans, and with them, we are losing
their story. The Library of Congress has a Veteran's History Project. They ask
that the interview be recorded either by audio tape recording or by video taping
the interview. This would then be submitted for permanent record to the LOC.
Read more about it by clicking here.
The site will tell you how your student can participate and give you forms and
tips for the interviewing process.
Copywork: See the Music lesson for one
copywork idea. Another idea would be to have your older student write out the
following quote and explain what it means:
Let every nation
know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any
burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to
assure the survival and the success of liberty. - John F. Kennedy, 1961
inaugural address
Writing/Narration: Ask your student to
write/narrate what the word hero means
to him. Or ask him write about someone who is a hero to him and why that person
is his hero. MUSIC
...Samantha wrote out the words of "My Country
'Tis of Thee" as a tribute in song.
Count by
5s/Multiply by 5s/Add 5: Since there are five branches of service,
take this opportunity to teach or review skip counting by 5, adding 5 to
other numbers, or multiplying by 5 using word problems.
For Example: There are 5 branches of
service. At the Veterans day party there were 5 men from each branch. How
many men were there in all? (25)
(Since the book only listed four branches
of service, you could do this with 4s instead of 5s. )
Graphing: Ask members of your
family, church, and/or friends if they served in any of the branches and if
so which branch. Then make a graph and determine which group you know the
most/least people from. An older student may wish to also ask if they are
a veteran of WWII, Korean, Vietnam, Cold War, Gulf War, Operation Enduring
Freedom, or Operation Iraqi Freedom and do two graphs.
Circle:
The table in the book was a circle. You may wish to explain that a
circle is measured in a unit called degrees. A complete circle is 360*. Half
of a circle is 180*. You could also make a pie or pizza and use it to teach
fractions. If you did the graphing lesson, you could create a pie graph of the
data.
SCIENCE
Tears: Our story mentions the tears of
the families. Today we're going to do discuss two questions: Why do we have
tears and why are the tears salty?
Our eyes must have moisture all the time. So God gave us tear glands to make
fluid (tears) for the eyes. The fluid comes out of the tear ducts in the corner
of our eye. The tear gland is called the lacrimal gland. The tear ducts are
called the lacrimal ducts. Fluid (tears) keeps the eyes moist and helps keep
our eyes clean and free from infections. Think of the washer fluid sprayed on
the windshield of our car, that's what the tears in our eyes do for
us...except our blinking eyelids is what moves the fluid around for us instead
of a windshield wiper! If our eyes did not stay moist, we would become blind.
There are different kinds of tears. The first kind, we've already talked
about...the moisture in our eyes. This kind of tear is called
basal tears. Sometimes we cry because
we got something in our eye. This could be a bit of dust or the juice of an
onion. These kinds of tears are called reflex
tears. God designed our eyes to make extra tears when something gets in
them, so that whatever is irritating them can be washed out. We also cry tears
when we are very happy or sad. These kinds of tears are called
emotional tears.
Sometimes people get "dry eyes." This is when the body doesn't make
enough tears to keep the eyes moist. When this happens they can buy "artificial
tears" at a pharmacy. They squeeze a drop or two into the eyes whenever the
eyes feel dry. (You might wish to discuss the importance of never putting
anything in your eyes.)
Now, on to our next question....why are tears salty? (You may have already
explored this topic with FIAR Volume IV's The
Hickory Chair.)
The simple answer is because our bodies are salty! If we took out all the salt
in our body, we would have about a cup full of salt. All the fluids in our body
have some amount of salt in them. That's why when we sweat or cry, the liquid
tastes like salt....the salt is coming out of our bodies.
Our body must have salt. And it isn't by chance that our bodies need salt,
God designed it that way! Salt actually helps to fight infection.
In the summer time, when we sweat a lot, we lose a lot of fluids and salt. We
need to replace those! That's why it's important when we sweat a lot to drink
water. Water has some salt in it, though we can't really taste it. Sometimes we
also drink Gatorade or PowerAde; they have more salt in them.
In our everyday activities, where we are not sweating a lot, we get plenty of
salt in the foods we eat and the liquids we drink. We have to be careful not to
add too much extra salt to our foods.
The Colors of Light: There are many
colors mentioned in the story: the white cloth, the yellow lemon, the black
napkin, the red rose and ribbon. Does your student know how we get colors?
Sunlight, which scientists call white light,
actually contains all colors. Light travels in waves that we cannot see. So
within the sunlight are waves of color.
Like sunlight, the "color" white also contains all colors. Similarly, the
"color" black is the absence of any color. Objects absorb or reflect colors.
The color an object absorbs is the color we see. For example, grass reflects
the green color in sunlight and absorbs the other colors in sunlight...so the
color we see when we look at grass is green.
The main colors of light are red, blue, and green. (Not to be confused with
primary colors in art, which are called the primary colors of pigment: red,
blue, and yellow. Technically red, blue , and green are called the primary
colors of light, but I chose to use the word main instead so as not to confuse
younger students! You may however wish to discuss this with your older
students.) Combining these colors creates more colors. Do this experiment to
show how combining makes new colors:
3 flashlights
4 pieces of cellophane (two red, one blue, and one green), large enough to
fit over the end of the flashlights.
a dark room
a white wall or large piece of white paper taped on the wall
Cover one flashlight with the red cellophane (may need to use two pieces of
red), another with the blue, and another with the green. Turn out the main
light and shine the flashlights onto the wall so that you can see the three
separate colors. Now shine the red and green so that they overlap. You
should see yellow where the two colors overlap! Now do the same with the
red and the blue. You will see magenta (a pinkish-purple). Repeat with
blue and green, and you will see cyan (a light bluish-green). Ask your
student what color he thinks will appear when you make all the colors
overlap? (Hint: We already discussed a "color" that was really the absence
of color and a "color" that was really all colors put together.) Combining
the red, blue, and green will give you white.
For more information and more experiments,
visit "How Light Works" at HowStuffWorks.com
There are 14 pages of more in-depth info that you may wish to share with
your older student.
The
Usborne Big Book of Experiments, pp. 66-71 The Ben Franklin Book of Easy & Incredible
Experiments: Activities, Projects, and Science Fun, pp. 107-13
(This book shows you how you can use three microscope slides to make your
own prism.) The Usborne Book of Science Experiments,
pp. 16-18 Genesis for Kids, "Day 1: God Made
Light"
Bible
Military men and women sacrifice much in order to protect America's freedoms.
Some of them even give their lives. Jesus sacrificed His life, so that we
would have a way to live eternally with our Father in Heaven.
Culminating Activities
At the end of this unit, plan a special dinner with the family (perhaps invite
some extended family or even a veteran). Help the students set up a White Table
of Remembrance in memory or honor of a loved one or in honor of our current
brave countrymen who cannot be home with their families this day. Let the
oldest student explain what the table is for. Then let the remaining students
take turns reciting the significance of each item on the table. Sing
My Country 'Tis of Thee.
There are many men and women serving our country right now. They would love to
hear from your family. Help your student write a letter to them, thanking them
for leaving their families to help to keep us safe. Tell them about the story
your read. If you are able, make a care package to send to a soldier.
At the website
AnySoldier.com you can
request the name of a solider to whom you can send a care package. It will be
distributed to someone that person's unit who did not receive any mail that day.
The distributor emails the site with a list of things that unit needs. Possible Go Alongs:
Vietnam has many different animals. Perhaps your student could research and
learn about some he may never have heard of before. Llangurs,
Rhinopithecus, salanganes, selenartos, civet cats may be some.
What are our freedoms? Have your student study the Bill of Rights or the
basic freedoms we have based on the Declaration of Independence - life,
liberty, pursuit of happiness.
Military Cemeteries: The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington Cemetery,
Flanders Field
Military Service Awards, Ribbons, and Medals
War Memorials: Each war has a memorial in Washington, DC. If you live
close, visit them, especially the Wall. And older student could research
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (the Wall).
Patriotic Symbols: the American flag, eagle, Uncle Sam, Statue of Liberty,
poppies (Flanders Field), yellow ribbons.
Patriotic Music: Star Spangled Banner
(Francis Scott Key), America the Beautiful,
God Bless America, Taps
(Daniel Adams Butterfield), etc.
There are a few illustrations in
the story that show the flag being flown for Veterans Day. Perhaps your
older student might like to research the various flags used in the history
of America: the Boston Liberty flag, the Don't Tread on Me flag, the Betsy
Ross Flag, the Grand Union Army Flag, the POW/MIA flag
Flag Etiquette
Adopt a POW / MIA: Does your family (or even your older student!) make
webpages? Perhaps you could adopt a POW or MIA and create a webpage for
him. Celia has done this. Here is a link to her webpage:
http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~hartmann/
Visit
Operation Just Cause to request the name of
a POW or MIA that you can create a page for.
Materials and information on this website belong to the
original composers. It may be used for your own personal and school use.