War at Home: The Civilian Side

Alice Lee, 5^th Grade

Summer Fellowship, 2008

To download this lesson in PDF format, click here.

Lesson 1—War at Home

1. Begin this unit by introducing the two essential questions: a) How do wars affect the lives of civilians?, and b) What supports do soldiers’ families need in time of war?

· Have students write these questions on the first page of a journal they will be keeping for the duration of this unit.

· Begin a discussion revolving around these questions. Ask students to share their thoughts regarding these questions, as well as what they know about civilians during wartime, soldiers, etc.

2. You will activate your students’ background knowledge on war by beginning a discussion on how war has affected them today. Ask the following questions:

· Do you know anyone in your family or have any friends or neighbors that have family members that are currently serving in the wars overseas?

· For students that know current families of soldiers, ask them how their family might feel about their family member being at war.

· If no students have any connections to soldiers in war, ask them how they might feel if one of their family members went away to war? How would they feel? How might it change their lives?

· What if one of their primary guardians or providers left for war? How might it impact the people they live with? How might it affect the quality of their lives if it was over a year—up to 5 years?

· In a worse case scenario, how might their lives change if a primary guardian or provider were wounded, became sick, or even died in war?

3. During this discussion, take notes of their reactions on either a large poster or transparency in order to reference back to their responses in later lessons. This is the first anchor chart for this unit, and will be revisited throughout.

4. Have students journal their thoughts and ideas, as well as any new thoughts that others mentioned during discussion.