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 other teachers’ lesson ideas.
In our classrooms today, students work at all different areas and grade levels of the curriculum. The Remembrance Day lessons and ideas provided through this link-up can be adapted for all grade levels.
Meaningful Remembrance Day Lessons for All Grades
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 analyzed the meaning as a class. I break up the poem into six verses – I change the spacing so that every four lines is a new verse. Then, I break the class into six groups, where each learns 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 dramatic and adds creativity to 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 the Veterans Affairs Canada website. They have a detailed website with various 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 created a simulation game to help students better understand life in the trenches during World War 1. Students read through different scenarios and choose between two options. Disclaimer: The website states that students will live through the realities of trench warfare.
You can use this free Remembrance Day Reading Comprehension Lesson with your middle school students to teach them why it is important to remember the efforts of our soldiers. You can get this resource FREE when you sign up for the 2 Peas and a Dog email list. Just click the image below.
If you are looking for an entire week of Remembrance Day lessons for older grade students, why not try out the following unit?
2 Week Remembrance Day Lessons Unit
If you are a Canadian middle school teacher looking to help your students connect with Remembrance Day in a meaningful way, this comprehensive Remembrance Day Lessons Unit is designed just for you.
Over two engaging weeks, use these 11 engaging and detailed lessons with multimedia elements to help your students explore and grasp the core concepts behind this occasion.
Lesson Overview
- What is Remembrance Day?
- Music Lyric Analysis
- Poem & Song Comparison and Analysis
- Video Analysis
- How Does the Poppy Relate to Remembrance Day?
- World War 1 Trench Life Simulation Game (Optional)
- Choral Reading
- Modern Day Armed Forces
- Opinion Writing
- Photo Analysis
- Contributions of Indigenous Peoples
Read this comprehensive review from Andrea H.:
“This has quickly become a go-to Remembrance Day resource for my class. The media analysis lessons work well as hybrid ELA/Social Studies assignments, and it’s easy enough to change some of the songs suggested to ones with a more Canadian connection, depending on divisional requirements for media texts.
I also appreciate the way these lessons complement each other while still allowing for judicious omissions; teaching several students whose families have come from and/or still live in active conflict zones, I found it easy enough to skip the lesson that focuses on modern-day warfare, and instead hold a class discussion in more general terms about the Then vs Now nature of combat.
I especially appreciate the recent update to include Indigenous content. I’d previously created supplementary lessons to that end myself, but now with the materials having the same layout and format everything flows that much better, and I’m still able to supplement with the other information I’d gathered before.
I love how teaching with these resources can be as straightforward or complex as you want to make it. The value of a fully-prepared set of lessons, which are nevertheless versatile enough to allow for modifications as needed, can’t possibly be overstated!”
You can find the Remembrance Day Lessons Unit on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD. If you’re looking for more Canadian history resources, you can take a look at the whole category on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
More Remembrance Day Lessons For Other Grades
Click on the links below to visit other Canadian teacher-bloggers showcasing their ideas for Remembrance Day lessons.
- Primary Teaching Resources by Nicole
- The Primary Patch
- Teacher Talk
- Diamond Mom’s Treasury of Teaching Resources
- That Fun Reading Teacher
- Dancing into First
Additional Canadian History Resources
- Engaging Grade 7 History Lessons
- Grade 7/8 History Lessons For The Ontario Curriculum
- Engaging Grade 8 History Lesson Plans
- 13 Ways To Make History Class Engaging For Students
- Interesting History Lessons For Middle School Teachers
- Engaging Canadian History Lesson Plans for Middle School
- Easy and Engaging Canadian History Sub Plans For Middle School Students
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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!