Remembrance Day interactive poppy garden
Students across the region took part in World War themed activities in the lead up to this year’s Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.
Crooksbarn Primary School and West View Primary School, both part of the Ad Astra Trust, are preparing for next week’s Remembrance Day with design and technology projects, innovative history lessons, and displays.
Crooksbarn, in Stockton-on-Tees, created an interactive poppy garden with changing QR codes to help engage students in the story behind those who lost their lives in battle.
John McCrae 150th birthday
West View Primary, in Hartlepool, took part in English lessons focusing on poetry related to the Wars. West View looked at ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae and ‘High Flight’ by John Gillespie Magree Jr.
West View will be attending the John McCrae 150th birthday remembrance event virtually on November 9th. The free online event will mark the 150th birthday of McCrae with students from all over the world logging in to participate. Michelle Crawford, Year 6 teacher at West View, explained that these events would ‘creatively commemorate John McCrae’ and ‘explore his incredible legacy’.
Additionally West View pupils created sculptures of WW1 soldiers in trenches. Students studied images of life in the trenches and sketched out the positions soldiers would sit in before creating their sculptures.
Students in Year 5 and 6 at Crooksbarn Primary took part in a WW2 bomb shelter building activity over the October half term holiday. The students brought their completed shelters into school as the new half term began. Shelters were built using a variety of materials, such as lego and recycled household items. The school explained how difficult it was to choose a competition winner and, in the end, five students were awarded books as prizes for their excellent engineering skills.
A smart way to teach local history
A Remembrance Day Garden was also set up by Crooksbarn’s Nursery teacher, Jane Whittaker. The garden is unique due to utilising smart technology by attaching QR codes to the poppies on display. Each QR code links to a part of the WW1 story, giving students and parents an interesting and interactive new way to explore important national and local history. In the lead up to Remembrance Day, the school will sell poppies every morning and the QR codes change regularly in the two weeks of the display.
Students from Year 6 also mentored Nursery students by assisting them with scanning the QR codes. Jane commented:
“We believe that Remembrance Sunday is a very important event to mark with the children because it is such a key part of both our national and local history. The children regularly visit our local church, St Mary’s, which has a war memorial and it sparks conversation with them. We wanted to capitalise on this spark of interest by creating a sculpture garden in honour of Remembrance Sunday which could be truly interactive. All of the children are very adept with smart technology so the use of QR codes, which they can scan for further information, is a very accessible way for them to learn more. It is also a way for us to share information with parents, such as the process of making our poppy sculptures as in Early Years we believe that the process of design and making is as important as the end product.”
Chris Zarraga, Director of Schools North East commented:
`It is amazing to see the ways in which both West View and Crooksbarn are engaging with design and technology to commemorate those lost in action during the World Wars. Well done to the schools for finding such innovative ways for North East students to interact with their country’s history and to honour the fallen next Friday on Armistice Day’.
Ceremonies to lay poppies and commemorate those no longer with us will take place all over the North East.
If your school would like to join in to the free 150th birthday celebration of John McCrae you can do so by registering here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/remember-together-john-mccrae-150-event-1-tickets-449456896677
In Flanders Fields’
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
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