Reception heard the story of ‘a day to remember’. We learnt all about poppies and why we wear them. We completed our talk topic about this, completed crafts to remind us of this day.
One pupil told a visitor to school “we wear a poppy to remember the soldiers and people who died in the war. Its a poppy because when the war finished they grew on the ground.”
Year 1
Today, we had a special afternoon to remember those who have made sacrifices in wars. We began by reading the story Bertie’s Poppy, which helped us understand why people wear red poppies. The red poppies are worn to remember soldiers who fought and lost their lives in wars. We also learned something new—purple poppies are worn to remember the animals that helped in the wars, like horses and dogs. To honour these animals, we wrote thank you messages to them, showing our appreciation for all they did. Afterwards, we coloured our poppies purple to remember the animals. Finally, we got creative and made our own poppies, remembering both the soldiers and the animals who helped. It was a meaningful afternoon and we felt proud to honour them with our poppies.
Year 2
Year 2 looked at some characters from the Black community that contributed to World War One.
We looked at:
– Aunty Esther who was the first British Black Working Class woman to have written an autobiography of the First world war.
– Walter Tull who is known as the soccer soldier. Walter joined the Football Battalion and was quickly promoted to the rank of Sergeant. He became the first black officer to lead soldiers on the front line. Sadly, he died but his body was never found.
– Herbert Morris: he joined the army at 16. However, he found it horrendous and he ran away twice. At 17 Morris was one of the youngest soldiers to be executed
The children made poppy wreaths which we have displayed on our tree of virtues.
Year 3
Year 3 had a great day today remembering those who lost their lives as a result of World War 1. We created poppies, learnt the history of the poppy, watched a reading of a book and improved our VIPERS skills by giving predictions on a text and retrieving information from a text. To round the day off, we all had a go at writing acrostic poems for the first time!
Year 4
On Remembrance Day, Year 4 joined a Zoom session to learn all about what Remembrance Day is and how/ why we commemorate it. We then took part in a 2 minute silence to remember those who gave their lives in service.
We shared the story of Poppy Field by Michael Morpurgo and then learnt all about the role of women during the war. We really enjoyed learning all about the Enigma and the women who were tasked with cracking the code.
Year 5
Year 5 joined in a Remembrance Day zoom lesson led by The Royal British Legion. During the assembly, they heard from veterans, listened to music and poetry and learnt about D-Day. They also observed 2 minutes of silence at 11am.
Following this, they discussed how the lives of people changed during the war. They learnt about evacuation and rationing. We read the book Please Write Soon by Michael Rosen, then we wrote letters.
Year 6
In Year 6, we explored the lives of those in our local area who fought in the First World War and created biographies and profiles about them as a way of honouring their memory.
We discussed poems written by ‘The Lost Generation’ including Wilfred Owen, and analysed John McCrae’s ‘In Flanders Fields’ discussing the meaning and emotive language used.
We then used these to help us created our own war poems as an act of remembrance.
