REMEMBRANCE DAY TEACHING NOTES

REMEMBRANCE DAY or ARMISTICE DAY - 11th November.

Children today might ask 'What relevance is this to me? It happened a long time ago - back in history'. But it is very relevant for pupils to learn about Remembrance Day.

War is certainly not a thing of the past and wars are unfortunately still being fought today. Troops are on duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and other trouble spots around the world. Remembrance and the two minute tribute is just as relevant and important as ever.

Click the photo for a Remembrance Day Teaching Resource.

TEACHERS' NOTES:

You will see many people wearing poppies at this time of year. Why? Poppies grew in the fields of Flanders and are a memorial to those soldiers who died during the First World War, and later wars. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the guns of Europe stopped fighting. The war had ended. An Armistice was signed at 11am and the war was officially over.

Remembrance Day remembers all those who fought and died in the first two World Wars and in later conflicts. In the UK and other countries, a two minute silence at 11am on 11th November is observed at war cenotaphs, memorials, religious services and even shopping centres. Wreaths of poppies are laid around cenotaphs and memorials.


IN FLANDERS FIELDS - poem by John Mcrae, 1915
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.