Write a Veterans Day speech for a school assembly that fits on one index card.Angle: one sentence on the day, one on a veteran, one of thanks.
Ask a veteran what their job was in the service, and write a how-to page from the answer.Angle: a cook, a mechanic, a radio operator, a clerk. Ask what a normal shift was.
Interview a veteran in your family for Veterans Day and write it up as a newspaper story.Angle: lead with the most surprising thing they said.
A veteran is spending this November far from family; write them a Veterans Day letter about your town today.Angle: the weather, the leaves, what is for dinner. Small news travels well.
A veteran's old uniform hangs in a closet; write the Veterans Day thank-you note someone pins to its sleeve.Angle: decide who writes it, and keep the note to two lines.
Draft the Veterans Day thank-you letter a whole class could sign, with one line left open for each student.Angle: leave a blank after We are thankful for, and fill it five different ways.
End a Veterans Day letter to a veteran with a promise you can keep this year.Angle: something small you can check: learn one veteran's story, help raise the school flag.
Fit a Veterans Day thank-you onto a card the size of your hand.Angle: three lines: who you are, what you are thankful for, one wish for their day.
Make a Veterans Day thank-you letter out of a list: ten things you are free to do on an ordinary Saturday.First line: One: sleep late. Two: say what I think about broccoli.
Say thank you to a veteran in a letter that never uses the words thank you.Angle: show it instead: what you can do today because someone served.
Send a Veterans Day thank-you, on paper, to a veteran who served long before you were born.Angle: say what has changed since then and what you hope has stayed the same.
Start a letter to a veteran with something ordinary you did this morning, then say why it belongs in a Veterans Day letter.First line: Today I walked to school and nobody stopped me.
Thank a veteran in your town, in a Veterans Day letter, for the work they do now.Angle: the coach, the mail carrier, the neighbor who fixes bikes.
Thank a veteran you have never met in a Veterans Day letter of five sentences, and make the third one a question.First line: Dear Veteran, we have not met. I am ten, and I have a question.
Thank a veteran, in a letter, for something small they went without while serving.Angle: birthdays at home, a pet, their own bed. Pick one and say what you would miss.
Write a Veterans Day thank-you letter to a veteran in your family, for one thing they did after they came home.Angle: the job they took, the garden they planted, the stories they tell at dinner.
Write a Veterans Day thank-you that a veteran could read aloud to a whole school.Angle: open with a question to the room, and keep it under a minute.
Write the reply: a veteran answers a child's Veterans Day letter.First line: Your letter came on a Tuesday, and I read it twice.
Write two letters to the same veteran: one as you would write it this Veterans Day, one as you might in twenty years.Angle: what would the older you know to thank them for?
Questions for a veteran 16
After a Veterans Day interview the veteran asks you questions back; write them, and your answers.First line: Now it is my turn. What do you want to be good at?
Ask a veteran about the food: write your questions, then the answers you imagine.Angle: the best meal, the worst one, the first thing they ate back home.
Ask a veteran to describe one friend from their years of service, and write that friend's portrait in words.Angle: where the friend was from, what they laughed at, the nickname.
Ask a veteran what their job was in the service, and write a how-to page from the answer.Angle: a cook, a mechanic, a radio operator, a clerk. Ask what a normal shift was.
Ask a veteran what they learned in the service that they still use, and write about that skill.Angle: folding, reading a map, getting up early, packing a bag.
Ask a veteran what they missed about home, and write a page on the answer.Angle: guess first, then compare: a bed, a dog, the smell of a kitchen.
Before a veteran visits your class on Veterans Day, sort the class's questions and write which three get asked first.Angle: one about then, one about now, one just for fun.
Interview a veteran in your family for Veterans Day and write it up as a newspaper story.Angle: lead with the most surprising thing they said.
List ten questions you would ask a veteran on Veterans Day, with the one you most want answered first.Angle: ask about days, not battles: the food, the weather, the mail, the friends.
Some questions for a veteran are hard to ask; write one of yours two ways, the blunt way and a gentler way.Angle: read both aloud and write down what changed.
Turn a Veterans Day interview into a timeline: write the five dates a veteran might put on it.Angle: the day they joined, the farthest they traveled, the day they came home.
Two veterans get the same Veterans Day question; write how their answers differ.Angle: they can be made up: one served on a ship, one at a desk.
Write five Veterans Day interview questions for a veteran that cannot be answered with yes or no.First line: What did an ordinary Tuesday look like where you served?
Write questions about mail for a veteran: letters sent, packages opened, the wait in between.Angle: what was in the best package, and who packed it?
Write the note you would send a veteran after a Veterans Day interview, naming the answer you will remember.First line: I keep thinking about what you said about the rain.
Write three questions for a veteran about the day they came home.Angle: who was waiting, what had changed, what was exactly the same.
What service means 16
Compare two words for a veteran: hero and helper.Angle: which would a veteran pick for themselves? Say why you think so.
Define courage for Veterans Day without any fighting in the definition.First line: Courage is raising your hand when you are not sure.
Describe a Veterans Day parade from the curb, as one way a town says thank you.Fact: when November 11 is a weekday, many communities hold parades on the weekend before or after.
Explain the difference between a job and a service, for a Veterans Day essay.Angle: use two examples from your own week.
Finish this Veterans Day sentence and keep going for a page: To serve means.First line: To serve means to show up when it is your turn.
For Veterans Day, write about a promise and what it takes to keep one after it stops being easy.Angle: start from a small promise of your own.
For Veterans Day, write what the word service means without looking it up.Angle: then look it up, and write what you left out.
The purpose of Veterans Day speaks of the common good; write about one thing in your town that belongs to everyone.Angle: a park, a library, a road. Who looks after it?
Serving can mean a year away from home; count what a veteran missed in one year, and write about it.Angle: the birthdays, the holidays, a first day of school.
Should schools stay open on November 11 to hold a Veterans Day ceremony, or close for the day? Write your opinion.Fact: schools decide for themselves whether to close on Veterans Day.
Veterans are honored for a willingness to serve; write about a time you were willing to do something hard for someone else.Fact: the VA says the day honors patriotism, love of country and willingness to serve and sacrifice.
Veterans Day is for everyone who served, in wartime or in peacetime; write about serving in a quiet year.Fact: the VA says the day thanks all who served honorably, in wartime or peacetime.
What does a veteran bring home besides a uniform? Write about the habits, skills and sayings.Angle: the way they fold a shirt, the hour they wake, a word nobody else uses.
Write a Veterans Day acrostic poem on the word VETERAN.Angle: one line for each letter, and no line may use the word brave.
Write a Veterans Day poem in which every line begins Because someone served.First line: Because someone served, the bus came on time.
Write a Veterans Day speech for a school assembly that fits on one index card.Angle: one sentence on the day, one on a veteran, one of thanks.
The eleventh of November 16
A child watches the first Armistice Day in 1919; write what the child sees from the sidewalk.Fact: November 11 was first commemorated as Armistice Day in November 1919.
The calendar page for November 11 can talk; write what it says about being Veterans Day.First line: I am the only page in November that people stand up for.
Canada and Australia call November 11 Remembrance Day; write to a pen pal there, comparing it with Veterans Day.Fact: both countries observe Remembrance Day on November 11.
Explain to a younger child why Veterans Day has no apostrophe.Fact: the VA says the day does not belong to veterans; it is a day for honoring all of them.
For a few years Veterans Day was a Monday in October; write a letter from someone who wanted November 11 back.Fact: the first one under that law was October 25, 1971; the date returned to November 11 in 1978.
In 1938 November 11 became a legal holiday dedicated to world peace; write what a day for peace should look like.Fact: the act of 1938 dedicated the day to the cause of world peace.
In 1954 one word of a law was changed and Armistice Day became Veterans Day; write about the power of changing one word.Fact: Congress struck out the word Armistice and put in the word Veterans.
It is the eleventh hour of November 11, 1918, and word that the fighting has stopped reaches a small town; write the next ten minutes.Fact: the armistice took effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
On Remembrance Day in Britain people keep two minutes of silence at 11 in the morning; write all that one person hears.Fact: Britain keeps Remembrance Day on the Sunday nearest to November 11.
Tell Veterans Day and Memorial Day apart in your own words.Fact: Memorial Day remembers those who died in service; Veterans Day thanks all who served.
Veterans Day stays on November 11 even when that is a Tuesday; argue for keeping a holiday on its real date.Fact: the day is observed on November 11 whatever day of the week it falls on.
Veterans Day was first called Armistice Day; explain what an armistice is to someone who has never heard the word.Fact: the VA calls an armistice a temporary cessation of hostilities.
Write a diary entry dated November 11 of this year.Angle: what showed you it was Veterans Day: a flag, a parade, a quiet street.
Write a poem of eleven lines for the eleventh of November.Angle: let the eleventh line be only two words.
Write the announcement your school could read over the loudspeaker on the morning of Veterans Day.Angle: the date, why this date, and one thing to do before lunch.
Write the history of Veterans Day as a timeline of five sentences.Fact: 1918, the armistice; 1938, a legal holiday; 1954, the new name; 1971, moved; 1978, back.
How it works
These Veterans Day writing prompts leave battles out. They stay with the people who served and with the ordinary parts of serving: the mail, the food, the friends, the day of coming home.
Read the full guide
Journal writing prompts for Veterans Day
For a journal, pick a prompt that needs nobody else. Define courage with no fighting in the definition. Finish the sentence To serve means and keep going for a page. Or date a diary entry November 11 and write what showed you which day it was.
Writing prompts about Veterans Day and its date
A line that starts with Fact comes from the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The armistice of the First World War took effect at the eleventh hour of November 11, 1918. The holiday was Armistice Day until 1954, when Congress changed one word of the law.
Ask a veteran about ordinary days: what was for breakfast, how the mail came, who made them laugh.
Thank for one exact thing. A letter about a single Saturday says more than one about freedom.
Questions and answers
What are good Veterans Day writing prompts?
Ones a writer can answer without knowing any military history. List ten questions for a veteran with the best one first, fit a thank-you onto a card the size of your hand, or write a poem in which every line begins Because someone served.
Is it Veterans Day or Veteran's Day?
Veterans Day, with no apostrophe. The Department of Veterans Affairs explains that the day does not belong to veterans; it is a day for honoring all of them. A search for veteran's day writing prompts means the same holiday.
When is Veterans Day?
November 11, every year, whatever day of the week that is. For a few years from 1971 it was kept on a Monday in October, and it returned to November 11 in 1978.
What is the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day?
Memorial Day remembers those who died in military service. Veterans Day thanks everyone who served, in wartime or peacetime, and the Department of Veterans Affairs says it is largely meant for living veterans.