Considerations:
1. I did not want this to be a celebration of war, but an opportunity to understand a historic event and how it galvanised a feeling of nationalism and the creation of the term ANZAC.
2. I wanted the children to understand why people attend Dawn Ceremonies, and what to expect if they were to attend one.
3. I wanted the children to understand the significance of the red poppy and why people sell poppies at this time.
4. I wanted the children to understand why this years commemoration was special- 100th Anniversary. (RTC6)
I created the following plan for the whole school day.
Central School Anzac Day Celebration
(Proposed Plan) - WHOLE SCHOOL DAY 1 2015
to be held on Wednesday 22nd April ( Week1 / Term2)
Curriculum Focus : Social Sciences- Continuity and Change
Students learn about past events, experiences and actions and the changing ways in which these things have been interpreted over time.
Students will gain knowledge skills and experience to:
Level 1: Understand how the past is important to people
Level 2: Understand how places influence people and people influence places
Level 2: Understand how people make significant contributions to New Zealand’s society
Level 3: Understand how people remember and record the past in different ways
Children to be invited to attend in 1914 dress up clothes if they wish or in green ( kaki colours)
9.00 children gather in their classrooms
9.05 outside in the quad line up in straight lines for roll call- army style!
Children sit and listen to the plan for the day
Begin the day with school karakia together.
9.10 Children move off with their buddy class to work on their ANZAC day activities
9.15- 10.40 Session 1 with buddy classes
11.00- 12.30 Session 2 with buddy classes
1.30- 1.45 Final preparation/ clean up of activities to share
1.45- Gather at the deck to begin our school commemoration service
Please remain sitting in your buddy groups.
Sit on bottom steps facing towards the junior grass playground area where a commemoration garden of crosses will be set up
2.00pm Last post and Reveille to be played by Bryce Gordon- followed by a short explanation by him of their purpose and significance
2 or 3 Senior children to present a short verbal obituary of one of the fallen crosses from research undertaken
Classes to share and present what they have been doing that day
Finish with re singing a few songs that have been presented during the sharing session together.
Reciting of the ANZAC creed - We will remember them
Pack up /Home
I also invited Mr Bryce Gordon to come and play the Last Post for the children- see photos.
Organisation: The programme was organised as a Buddy class day, whereby two classes worked together on their activity. The Buddy classes were pre-arranged as part of our Tuakana/Teina focus.
This allowed for a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment for both the older and younger students, whereby the Tuakana supported their Teina, and the Teina got to know and trust their Tuakana in a learning experience. For some children with no siblings at school, this allowed them an opportunity to get to know and establish relationships with some of the older students.
Also because we have a large ELL roll in our school, working with a buddy in a Tuakana/ Teina role, supported the students for whom English was not their first language. This allowed them to talk and question their buddy, or to use their buddy as a model for the tasks required. (RTC9)
Each Buddy class group were charged with choosing their own activity for their two sessions, culminating with a sharing session at the end of the day. (RTC7, RTC9)
Reflection:
How did the day go?:
Due to the weather we began the sharing session in the hall rather than outside as planned. We followed an Anzac day format utilising a Powerpoint planner which was shared with me from Bonnie Mills- ( she found online).
This ANZAC commemorative assembly planner became the basis for the report back session, with classes sharing their work within the session.
Following the playing of the Last Post we went outside and gathered on the deck to view the memorial garden of crosses which had been set up by rooms 5 and 10. These crosses had the names of local people that were killed during World War 1.
We then viewed the children from Rooms 6 and 11 who had learnt to march like a platoon as they presented their police and navy drills ably led by their respective teachers- who incidentally were ex navy and police members.
The day concluded with a final karakia and waiata. (RTC3)
EVALUATION:
The children were very interested in the ANZAC activities. There was a nice variety of activities including art, poppy making, digging trenches in the school sandpit, creating a memorial garden, learning songs from the era, listening to obituaries of some of the fallen soldiers, marching drills and the sharing of video footage and photos of the time. Many of the children came dressed for the occasion and some grandparents and parents came along to share in the activities of the day. Having Mr Bryce Gordon to play the Last Post and Reveille was an especially poignant moment in the day. The children were very respectful.
The children and the parents of the community were very interested in the memorial garden and so I set it up every day for the rest of the week and many children and families were seen wandering through it, reading the names of the people who were represented there. My children enjoyed learning how to set up the garden and to measure accurately the correct dimensions between the rows and lines.
When I asked my children what ANZAC day was about at the beginning of the learning answers ranged from a party with clowns and horses, a street parade with dances, to animals and elephants. One child knew it was to do with war and they had been to a service previously. Following the day I had 8 children say they attended this years Dawn Service and many more had watched the commemoration footage on television with their families.
All children gained an increased knowledge of what ANZAC day was about as evidenced by pre and post drawings.
The Central School Newsletter provides a good summary of the days events and further photographs of the activities that occurred that day.
PERSONAL LEARNING FOLLOW ON - ANZAC day 2015
1. As a member of the City Sounds choir, I was involved in a production at the Inglewood town hall on ANZAC day to commemorate the 100th ANZAC anniversary. Our performance told a story about the WWI experience in song, with a storyteller providing information in between. This was a great experience and it was a thrill to see how our rendition of the story affected both the elderly and the young in the packed house venue. I also took a minor part as a support singer in the song I am Women, which depicted how women took on the roles of the men who were away at war.
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| Singing within the production. |
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| Preparing for the production with Sandra Petrove |
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| City Sounds Choir singing at the ANZAC day production Inglewood Town Hall ANZAC day 2015 |
Follow up learning 6/7/15
During the Term 2 holidays when I was in Wellington I visited the Gallipoli exhibition at Te Papa as a follow on to further my knowledge about the ANZAC campaign. (RTC4)
This exhibition was amazing with life like wax models of soldiers depicting day to day scenes from the time. These models were made by Weta studios and were 2 to 3 times the size of a normal person. The attention to detail was amazing and it really gave a sense of the fear and desperation of the men and women involved. It was also interesting to hear personal stories recounted, view what it would have been like in the bunkers,see models of the hospital ships and see the types of rations the soldiers lived on. It was very apparent by the solemn faces of those attending this exhibition that it was a deep personal experience for most there.
