Learn about the different groups of people that lived in Canada during wartime and how their roles and lives were changed as a result: How War Changes Us. We emphasize the importance of learning about these conflicts so we can prevent them in the future. It is impossible to detail every event, but we have often found that students are very interested in learning about what happened.

The reading passages were designed to be easily read and comprehended while still explaining the events of Vimy Ridge and D-Day. We decided to write our own reading pieces to help students understand some of the roles of Canadians. While it is important for students to understand Canada’s role in conflicts around the world, they are still young and sometimes learning about such serious events can be frightening. It can be challenging to find reading activities for students in upper elementary because the subject matter is serious, often violent and challenging to read.

It is difficult for some of them to understand the abstractness of war, so it is even more important for us to give them a realistic view of those events and the history behind them. Our current students are a few generations removed from that war, though some have had family members serve in Korea, Afghanistan or with the United Nations Peacekeepers. It was easier to understand the purpose of Remembrance Day when Grandpa would wear his medals to our school service.

As we were growing up, many of us had family members who had served in World War II.

Remembrance poppy etiquette