Teaching About September 11 and Patriot Day in the Classroom

Have you struggled with knowing how to teach about the events of 9/11 in your classroom? Each year around the anniversary, you might find yourself trying to decide the best way to approach this topic with your students. I’d like to share a great resource for teaching about September 11 and Patriot Day in your classroom this year!

Teaching About September 11 in the Classroom

This is a sensitive, yet important, topic. It can be so difficult to know exactly how to discuss it with young students in particular. So, several years ago I created ​this resource​ to give teachers a ready-to-go option for teaching about September 11 and the significance of Patriot Day in a way that’s appropriate for young minds.

And it’s helped so many teachers (thousands in fact!) share about this signifcant event with their students! It’s become a teacher-favorite for a reason. But don’t take my word for it. See what teachers are saying about this resource!

“It’s important to teach students the significance of 9/11 and this PowerPoint is informative and age appropriate. Thank you for handling this topic so delicately!” – Cindy (Buyer)

“I LOVE this! Finally something that helps explain 9/11 to students in a way they can understand. I’ll be using this every year.” – Emilee (Buyer)

“These resources were perfect for explaining to students the magnitude of this event. I especially liked the vocabulary posters with real images and student-friendly definitions.” – Kim (Buyer)

“Thank you for creating this. I knew I really wanted to touch on 9/11 this year as it was the 20th anniversary, I just was not sure how to approach it. This was a kid-friendly way to teach them about such a difficult and sad day.” – Hannah (Buyer)

Find these reviews, and many more, for this resource in my TPT shop – and it’s also available here in my website store too.

PowerPoint Lesson & Activities About 9/11 and Patriot Day

This best-selling resource includes a 23 slide PowerPoint with photos to explain what happened on September 11th, 2001. This lesson also explains the significance of Patriot Day and talks about the brave people who risked their lives during and after the events to help others.

It also includes several activities teachers use to further the discussion with their students. Students can write thank you notes to local heros in their community using the included templates. And the 9/11 Readers give students the opportunity to reflect on what they learned in the lesson.

Additionally, a writing activity is included for students to organize their thoughts and complete a craft to go with it. These will look amazing displayed in your classroom afterwards, and they’ll be a great reminder of what the class learned about September 11.

There’s also a Google Slides option included for the PowerPoint and some of the activities, making it easy to share digitally with students if you prefer.

Teaching Students About September 11

This low-prep resource is available now in my TPT shop and my website store. Hopefully this helps take some of the stress out of your September 11 lesson plans this year!