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Saturday, November 15, 2014

Operation Safe Buddy

*Everything you need to make Safe Buddy for a solider ... and more!

(a non-TPT download is available below)

A few weeks ago I saw this story on Facebook and honestly I cried. I thought it was so sweet of a small girl to give a soldier her stuffed fish (Chester) to keep him safe. As Veteran's Day rolled around, I really wanted to do something for these men and women who risk their lives and spend large amounts of time away from home.

First, I was just going to have my students write letters:

 

Then, I decided that a poster of handprint flags would be nice:

Finally, I realized that there was no reason why we couldn't make buddies for the soldiers like Chester. I gave each of my students a small person outline and had them draw a happy buddy for a soldier. After that, I had them glue it to the blank side of a note card.


Then, I wrote this on the board for them to copy onto the template I made: This is Safe Buddy. I made him/her to keep you safe when you are fighting bad guys. Love, (their name). Then, they wrote their own little message on the P.S. line. Having them write this on their own made them more personal but I also have pre-made cards for those who can't.


I looked up where to send these items and found Operation Gratitude. They said to be sure that the students only write their first name and have the address of the school on everything you send. I found all of the information I needed here: Operation Gratitude  After I added the address and the school year to all of the buddies and letters, I laminated everything. I was so excited about the Safe Buddy idea that I made a whole pack (for all ages) of Safe Buddy people, notecard templates, letter templates, teacher ideas and information. I really think the soldiers would love to have these little Safe Buddies tucked in their pockets to make them smile. I would LOVE it if any of you reading this would have your students make Safe Buddies for soldiers. They don't take very long to make and I know it would brighten their day!

This is where I sent our package: 

Operation Gratitude
CA Army National Guard
Deployed Troops
Attn: Angel Cuevas
17330 Victory Blvd
Van Nuys, CA 91406

More information can be found on the Operation Gratitude site. 


Please share this with others so that our soldiers can have a little love away from home! My class is going to try to make more buddies at the beginning of each month so that we will send out over 100 this year.

Please leave a comment if you like this idea, have any other ideas, or have any questions (: 


1 comment:

  1. I have nominated you for the Liebster Award! Come read about it here:
    http://adventuresinkinderandbeyond.blogspot.com/2014/11/liebster-award-x5.html

    ReplyDelete