Several bloggers have gotten together to share our best Remembrance Day lessons that can be adapted to suit the needs of various grade levels. What I love about this link up is the variety of lesson ideas offered by the other teachers. In our classrooms today, students are working at all different areas and grade levels of the curriculum. The lesson ideas provided through this link up can be adapted for all grade levels.
Poetry/Drama
For Remembrance Day, my students work on a choral reading of A Prayer for the 21st Century by John Marsden. First we read the poem out loud and analyse the meaning as a class. I break up poem up into six verses – I change the spacing so that every four lines is a new verse. Then I break the class up into six different groups that each learn a different verse of the poem. We present with the class standing in six rows facing forward. Students wear black pants and white shirts. It looks really dramatic, and adds some creativity into a traditional activity like choral reading. This can be assessed for drama and/or oral presentation marks.
Song Lyrics Comparison
Extend your student’s thinking by having them break into groups to compare the song lyrics for Imagine by John Lennon with the poem A Prayer for the 21st Century by John Marsden. Many similar themes and ideas will come up. Then have a class discussion bringing together the ideas from the various groups.
Reading Resources & Post Cards for Peace
Another great resource for lesson plans is Veterans Affairs Canada website. They have a detailed website with a variety of resources to help you plan your Remembrance Day activities and/or lessons. My Grade 7 and 8 students have enjoyed writing Postcards for Peace, and reading the Canada Remembers Times in both French and English classes.
World War 1 Trench Life Simulation
On the Canadian War Museum website they have created a simulation game to help students develop a greater understanding of life in the trenches during World War 1. Students read through different scenarios and make a choice between two options. Disclaimer – the website states that students will live through the realities of trench warfare.
Week of Lesson Plans
If you are looking for an entire week of Remembrance Day lessons for older grades students check out last year’s Remembrance Day blog post. It outlines the various stations: Song Lyric Analysis, Photo Stations, Videos, and Paragraph Responses that I use with my middle school students. These lessons can be adapted to work with younger or older audiences.
2 Week Remembrance Day Unit
Help your students develop a deeper connection to Canadian Remembrance Day in this two week long middle and high school focused teaching unit. Teachers are provided with 10 in-depth, engaging and relevant multimedia lessons to help their students explore and understand key concepts related to Remembrance Day. This resource contains individual PDFs of student pages to assist with online learning i.e. Google Classroom.
Find this resource on Shopify CAD and Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
Need other Canadian History Resources?
Click on the links below to visit other Canadian teacher-bloggers showcasing their ideas for Remembrance Day lessons.
Remembrance Day Resources For All Grades
Primary Teaching Resources by Nicole
The Primary Patch
Teacher Talk
Diamond Mom’s Treasury of Teaching Resources
That Fun Reading Teacher
Reading With Miss D
Teaching Elementary and Beyond
Dancing into First
Related Posts
Choral reading is so powerful-excellent idea. The activities for primary grades found on Veterans Affairs Canada website are great too! Bryn
Wow… I've never thought of doing a choral reading… it must sound amazing! Thanks for sharing your ideas!
Thank you for organizing this wealth of information! I love how all of these Remembrance Day resources are so accessible for teachers!
Thanks for hosting the link up! So many great ideas!