Vietnam Veterans Memorial Activities for Kids

Research the Memorial

• Kids interested in history might be fascinated by the story of the young Yale student, Maya Lin, who designed the Vietnam War Memorial. With your supervision, let the kids find information online about Ms. Lin and the building of the memorial, including the controversies surrounding it. The Virtual Wall site includes information about many of the soldiers listed on The Wall, along with information about the memorial itself and the Vietnam War. Kids can demonstrate their newfound knowledge by doing a report about the memorial's creation, a poster advertising it to visitors or some other visual display of what they believe to be important about the memorial.

Visit the Memorial

• If your child has the opportunity to visit Washington, D.C., take her to see the memorial in person. The memorial is open to visitors year-round and is wheelchair accessible. Spend some time talking to volunteers about the memorial, study the array of memorabilia and personal notes left by friends and family members, and carefully do a tracing of one of the names on The Wall. Encourage your child to participate in the National Park Service's Junior Ranger program -- she can complete the appropriate page in the program workbook while at the memorial. Let her write a note thanking the veterans for their service and leave it at The Wall.

Create a Wall Replica -- or Visit One

• Show your child a variety of pictures of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, including images of The Wall in various stages of construction. Let him select his choice of medium, then build a replica of The Wall. He might choose to make a scale model of the entire memorial or perhaps a replica of a single panel of The Wall. If you are fortunate enough to live in an area that sponsors occasional visits by the traveling down-sized version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, don't miss the opportunity to see it up close.

Design a Memorial

• Organize a memorial design competition in which kids design and perhaps build a memorial to honor a local hero or a national cause. Display the design drawings or models in your classroom or the local library. You can even encourage visitors to vote for different awards for the memorial designs, such as Most Innovative, Most Imposing, Tallest and Most Stairs.