On Remembrance Day (or Veteran’s Day or Armistice Day), students and others take time to remember the service of people who have been involved in efforts for the dignity of others, peace and stability, often at great personal cost, and in service on behalf of one’s country and its allies.
I wanted to add a post to my blog to help parents and teachers teach their children about this topic with a few worksheets or links which might not be easily found or readily thought of but which can be a simple way to discuss this topic with students.
10 Ideas for Teaching on or about Remembrance Day
- Remembrance Day worksheets – Jim Cornish, a former teacher in Newfoundland, prepared some good pdf worksheets for students to learn about vocabulary and history. These are entitled, “Remembrance Day” and I have found them at this link: https://web.archive.org/web/20060618025834/http://www.cdli.ca/CITE/remembrance_day.PDF
- My aunt, a former public school teacher and principal, as well as a long-time Sunday School teacher, gave me this outline years ago, which I retyped. It is more general about additional things that are ‘worth remembering’, along with Bible verse references to look up and discuss together. You can download it (free) here: Worth Remembering. One of the things listed on there is that it is worth remembering to PRAY. So let’s continue to pray, to talk every day, not just on Remembrance Day, to the God Who provides freedom from evil.
- For a Sunday service years back, our family made a slide visual using this song for Remembrance Day. The song is sung by the Matthews’ Brothers and entitled, “I Will Serve the Lord”, and can be heard here at this link. The lyrics refer to Christians who have been involved in years past in physical or spiritual battles and their commitment to stand up for what is right regardless of the personal costs.
- A simple colouring page is easy to provide young children (e.g. kindergarten age) with a short explanation such as: “On Remembrance Day (November 11th each year), we remember soldiers who fought in wars against countries that wanted to harm us or other people. There are ceremonies across Canada to honour the people and their families who fought for our freedom. People wear a red poppy as a symbol of remembering to be thankful for this.” This is from an old colouring sheet my mom used in her schools back when they copied things with purple ink machines. Poppies picture to colour.
- This is a link to a glossary that includes war-related terms which students (and today’s teachers/parents) might not be as familiar with. The first few lines of this glossary reads: “Glossary of Commonwealth War Graves Commission and military terms. In general military terms are given the meanings which were current during the 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 Wars. The present-day definitions may be very different.” Glossary of Terms This reference could be helpful in understand articles and other historical writings for better reading comprehension.
- This is a link to a list from Queen’s University (Ontario) for books and other media which are intended for use by children and teens to learn about Remembrance Day. Book and Other Media List
- For learning history (e.g. upper elementary and secondary levels), here is a good overview for students or teachers called, “The World Wars Through Canadian Eyes: Courage Remembered” and it is available in both English and French. (The link is for the splash page and then easy tabs are for the various parts. This set of pages is also where I initially found the above glossary.)
- The Salvation Army, a Christian organization – Learn about the history of the Salvation Army, including the ‘Donut Lassies’ with a few videos such as here (link 1), here (link 2), and here (link 3). (I think these are appropriate for any age of school children to help explain the subject of war and service to others.)
- Remembering Senior Citizens – Consider writing a letter or card or drawing a picture to mail or give to a senior you know. They might not have been a soldier in a war. But they may have been involved in some way in that situation. It wasn’t just people who shot things who should be remembered with respect.
- They may have been children in school during the war-time, missing a father or knowing of other people in their community who were involved if it wasn’t close family members. They may have been farming foods or sewing extra things to share with families or individuals in need during that time. They may have been involved with helping the wounded or burying others. They may have been people who prayed for people involved on the front-lines. Can you imagine what it would have been like to hear your teacher announce that peace had been declared and the war was over so you could leave school early that day and run home with the news?
- Seniors have often years of wisdom gained from various kinds of troubles which they have been concerned about in their lifetime. Nowadays, there tends to be less respect for the aged, especially if the elderly can no longer function like they did when they were younger. Instead of just going along with the trend to ignore them, thinking that they are a burden to society, or laughing at their frailties, why not take the time to share with them something that shows that you value them and honor them?
- Listen to some hymns such as these which were popular during the World Wars (a time when most people understood who God was/is and some recognized their need for Him).