Submitted by Julie Jones, Williamsburg, Virginia

Idea posted September 3, 2004

I have done a program for Veterans Day for the last three years. You can find sailors' hats very inexpensively at places like Oriental Trading, but the other hats presented more of a problem, because they could be very expensive. Ask your children to see if they have a family member or friend who might be a veteran or currently in the armed forces. Have your children ask that family member or friend if they might borrow their hat for the performance. About 2/3 of my students did have some kind of military connection and were able to find a hat. (I hadn't realized that there were multiple hats for some branches.) It was really neat when we did our program and these kids stood up with their hats, because they were actually representing someone whom they knew. For the rest who couldn't find a hat, I had plenty of the white sailor hats.