On 11 November 1918, after four years of warfare, the guns fell silent. Over 60,000 Australians lost their lives fighting in the first world war. At 11am, in memory of those who have died or suffered fighting for our freedom in armed conflict, Australia observes one minute’s silence. Lest we forget…
November 11, 2019 at 8:56 am
I’m teaching social studies this year and the grade two curriculum is to teach about traditions and celebrations. The last two weeks have been lots of Remembrance Day things for my kids. They now all know that I had a friend die in Afghanistan (I didn’t start out to tell them but they pulled it out of me) and all are now well aware about what this tradition is and why we celebrate it. They are blown away by the fact that it’s 100 years old. But then our conversations turned to questions I couldn’t answer: if the first Remembrance Day was held by George V, who were the other King George’s? And why is he V? Why didn’t he just pick a different name? Why do kings change their names once they become king? Why didn’t Queen Elizabeth? Who was the first king of England? I love their minds!! Lol
We are doing our ceremonies tomorrow at school and two of my kids are reading some writing pieces they did for my class on Friday. I’m so proud of them and how well they captured the reason why this day is so important.
November 16, 2019 at 12:46 pm
How did their readings go? It’s so important for our younger generations to understand and never forget what our ancestors did .
November 11, 2019 at 9:06 am
Such a solemn occasion.
November 16, 2019 at 12:47 pm
It really is.
November 16, 2019 at 1:22 pm
They went really well! Had a boy and girl and picked two of the top students in my class. Sounded great!
November 16, 2019 at 3:08 pm
Sounds like they did you proud 🙂
November 16, 2019 at 11:24 pm
100%!!! Although the one boy I chose has been a discipline problem lately which is baffling his parents and teachers and that day, at first recess, there was an issue and the VP was outside and she almost took it away from him. I told her she should have! lol But she let him read because he had spent the whole weekend practicing and memorizing it and was so proud that I chose him. He lost 10minutes of play from the next recess.