I have to say, this day always brings tears to my eyes.... Yes. I remember EXACTLY where I was on 9/11. I was in college in my tech class...well, on my way to tech class, and when I got there, only half the class was there and the other half was crying and staring at the television. I personally don't know anyone that went through it, but I have to tell you, I've been to ground zero a few times...and the FDNY museum of 9/11, and I just CAN'T even imagine. Even now, looking at the pictures, I get tears. Here are a few pics to show you... Going through that museum made me cry...especially thinking about if that was my husband. I don't worry too much that he's a firefighter, but that just brings tears to my eyes every time. Anyway, so I do think it's important to talk to kids about it, but if course, making it appropriate for the kids. First, we watched BrainPop - they have a video on 9/11. It's free, so even if you don't have a membership, you can still watch it. Click HERE to view it. Then we did a little craft... I showed them my example - And then they free-hand did their heart, no template. The only thing I DID cut for them was the 2 inch strips, but then they had to trim them to fit their heart. I think they came out so cute without using a pattern! AND this goes perfectly with what we've doing... Last week, our story was about Firefighters. now some of you know that I don't use the reading series...although, this one I like to, because a) my husband is a firefighter b) it's right before career week for us c) it's around 9/11 So it work perfectly in our time frame. I've been using my Community Helpers pack (this chart was done before I had the idea of making header cards - lol...20/20 hindsight, right?!) Then, I had the students do one of the label papers that comes from my community pack. They love these papers, and it's really great practice for nonfiction reading. I make sure to call the sentences on the bottom "the caption" that way they know that the captions talk about the picture. You can get my pack on TpT or TN What's in the pack?? Jobs included in this pack are: teacher rescue medic firefighter police officer sanitation worker mail carrier For each worker, there are: color picture cards with headers for teachers to use for whole group bubble map describing each character Tree map to describe what each worker has, does, and is Picture scenes that students need to label, complete the scene, and write a caption for the scene There is also a book for the students to create about each of the workers. Anyway, I have about 5 different posts in the waiting, because I didn't want to bombard you with SO much in one post. SOOO...hopefully, this week, I can get them all out to ya!