FREE MEMORIAL DAY READING & WRITING ACTIVITY: 3 Cool Differences Between Memorial Day and Veterans Day

1. The main difference is that Memorial Day is a holiday honoring men and women who have died while serving in the military whereas Veterans Day honors all American veterans, living or dead, who have honorably served in the military. 
2. Both Memorial Day and Veterans Day evolved from different days of observance. Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day which originated in the years following the Civil War. The term “Decoration Day” has to do with the fact that after the Civil War, which had ended in 1865 and had claimed more lives than any other conflict in U.S. history up until that point, Americans were decorating the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers and other items of tribute.
3. Whereas Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday in May, Veterans Day is observed on November 11 each year, even if that happens to be midweek. 

Check Out The 1-Page High-Interest Text and Writing Connections That Explains The Differences to Students To Get Them Reading & Writing:

NOW WITH A DISTANCE LEARNING VERSION (Google Slides) YET STILL FREE! WOW! Your students (deep down inside lol) are wondering what the difference is between Veterans Day and Memorial Day. And those truly inquisitive students are wondering why Veterans Day doesn't have an apostrophe (deep down inside lol). But, what they're wondering the most is "when is school gonna be out?" And you teachers want them to do some interesting informational text reading that compares and contrasts. PDF or Google.

So, here you go! A one-page FREE informational text passage with writing connections that compares and contrasts Veterans Day and Memorial Day based on carefully researched historical info. Comes with writing connections. You can also just have them make a venn diagram, write their own compare/contrast paragraph, look up some of the challenging vocabulary words, simply write a summary, etc. So many possibilities!

WANT MORE ENGAGING READING FOR YOUR STUDENTS? WANT TO HAVE THEM PRACTICE ALL 10 READING INFORMATIONAL TEXT STANDARDS SKILLS? STUDENTS KEEP REPORTING HOW MUCH THEY LOVE THE TEXTS!!! TRY BOTH VOLUMES: