Oh Say Can You "Sing" the National Anthem?

Welcome back to another year! I started off this year with a huge multi-class unit on the Star Spangled Banner (in my 3 years of teaching, I have somehow never gotten around to teaching this! Oops!). The 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders all completed a two-week study of our National Anthem using the Star Spangled Banner centers I purchased from www.musicbulletinboards.net. These are an excellent resource and the students really enjoyed working on each center (there are 10 in all). The anthem was written on September 13th, 1814, right in the middle of our unit, so we celebrated it's 198th anniversary. At the end of the unit, the students in each class were able to sing the entire anthem for me from memory! Here are some pictures of us working on our centers in class.

Francis Scott Key

Sing in the Blanks

Star Spangled Treble Clef

Sticky Note Singing

Star Spangled Word Find

 

Definitions

Write On

Here are a few poems that were written at the Poetry center. Students were to write a poem about America. We were covering this unit on September 11th, and some of the poems written that day were very heart-felt. (I've copied these as they were written.)

9-11

*by a 5th grader

 

Today was the day 9-11 came

With bombs they thought this was a game.

Lives were lost, tears were cryed.

Barly evan survived.

One day I beileve that justis will rain agin

I belive and hope everyday that they will never come agin.

 

American Eagle

*by a 4th grader

 

The fight was bloody, but we got

justice for the American Eagle. We

have freedom, and our nations flag still

stands, and the stars and stripes still blow.

 

American Eagle

*by a 4th grader

 

Stars and stripes are so pretty at night.

Just be glad to be an American Eagle.

So we don't have to fight.