Remembrance Day Ideas for Primary

Although November 11th is a sombre day of reflection, even our youngest learners are able to understand its significance and participate in age appropriate ways to commemorate Remembrance Day.  I want to thank my friend Kristy from 2 Peas and a Dog for hosting this Remembrance Day linky.  I hope you come away from it with some amazing new ideas to use with your students this month!

Remembrance Day holds a dear place in my heart.  I am especially proud of the role that my great-grandfather, Percy Griffith Davies, played as a Major in the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada based in Toronto during the Great War of 1914-1918.  

The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada was a regiment headed by Sir Henry Pellatt, the multi-millionaire who built Casa Loma.  Before WWI, my great-grandfather was his Personal Secretary.  Great-Grandpa Percy took a battalion overseas and fought in the battle of Vimy Ridge in Normandy, France.  He survived and returned to Canada to bring up his young family in Toronto and lived to be 100 years old.

There are a few activities that I find myself doing year after year with my second graders because they are so tried and true.  In the days leading up to Remembrance Day, we create a wreath of poppies for the assembly with our older Learning Buddies, make paper wreaths to hang from our classroom ceiling and paint poppy masterpieces for our bulletin board.  The last two of those activities can be found in the TPT product below.

I also fill my classroom library up with as many picture books as I can get my hands on about WWI, WWII or peace before November 11th .  

Last year I came across two outstanding books that I had never seen before. BONUS: they are available ==>now<== in November 2016's Grades 2&3 Reading Club flyer.  

Bunny the Brave War Horse by Elizabeth MacLeod and The Soldier's Puppy (also known under title "The Anzac Puppy") by Peter Millett and Trish Bowles are both incredibly touching stories. Although they deal with hardship and war, the books convey an underlying message of hope, love and loyalty. Your students will fall in love with the true tales of Bunny and Freda the dog. 

You can grab this FREEBIE I made for Bunny the Brave War Horse by clicking on the picture below.

What are your favourite Remembrance Day picture books?  I'd love to hear your suggestions in the comments below.

All the best,

Coronation Street-The best trip of my life

I don't drink beer, but here is my best impression of pulling a pint at The Rovers

My Dad taught Geography for over 30 years so it should come as no surprise that we spent a lot of time travelling growing up.  We took planes, trains and automobiles exploring Canada, the United States, exotic islands and historical Europe.  During my childhood, trips were regular occurrences. Looking back, I can see how my family was not the norm.  Some families are really into sports and eating out.  My parents decided that vacations were high on the priority list.

Let me be real though...I was miserable for a lot of these trips. They didn't seem like privileges and there were no ipads, ipods, portable DVD players (or even CD players yet #70s child) to entertain myself with.  I had a journal and books and my imagination.  In other words, my idea of heaven in the summer.

Now let's get to Miss Monica from I Heart Grade 3's linky topic this week which is all about the best trip of my life. It just so happened that this occurred very recently back in October 2014. It was a bit of an early 10 year anniversary surprise present from my hubby and it was over the Thanksgiving weekend. Yep, we went to England for a long weekend!  #crazykids

I grew up watching Coronation Street with my Mom and am a huge fan.  The show recently moved into a new studio in Manchester and they were giving tours of the old set until it gets turned into condos or something ridiculous like that.

It's always been a dream of mine to visit the set so...this was a bucket list vacation for just the 2 of us.

We flew into London, stayed at a posh hotel in Notting Hill, visited friends in Milton Keynes at their amazing farmhouse and then took another train to Manchester and flew out of there.

Here are a few pictures of our time in London-

The Tower of London's "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" installation of 888 246 ceramic poppies.

The King and Queen of our family of 4 (sans tiara sadly)

My Bobby with authentic British Bobbies

Donating my son's old Halloween "Fruit Bat" costume because donating is cool anywhere, anytime

London was amazing, as usual.  I think this was my 4th time there?  It never gets old, just more expensive. I only wish we would have had time to visit our relatives.

Now onto the dreamy part...visiting the Corrie Set!  I was soooooooooo excited and it was hard for me not to cry from happiness.  I did oohhh and ahhhh a lot.  Honestly, it was the best afternoon ever.

It was a drizzly day but I didn't care. I had a list of classic/cheesy pictures I wanted to recreate and I made my hubby swear that he would be patient and let me just live out my crazy fantasy.  It took me weeks of coming up with these and I had the BEST time posing. Unfortunately, you can't take pics inside the old set (no idea why...but you can't) so I had to really think about outside shots.

For your laughing pleasure, I present to you a taste of Coronation Street à la Bryn.

The alley way where all the juicy story lines go down (Peter and Tina made out here!)

Having a pretend "fag" (aka what the Brits call a cigarette) outside The Rovers.  This was a pen I had in my purse that I stuck in my mouth backwards.  Although smoking is not cool, Liz the barmaid smokes and I love her so had to just improvise in the name of artistic impression.

Trying to look sneaky/sultry like Tracey Barlow...total fail but this pictures cracks me up

Pretending to break in a window like David might with the overpriced umbrella we just bought from Buckingham Palace

Crying on the steps of Underworld (Fizz?) after not making my quota of knickers for Carla

Reliving Tina's tragic ending on set.  It almost looks like there's blood around my head too but that's just my hair...don't worry!

So there you have it, a few pictures of the best trip of my life in Manchester, UK.

Anyone else love Coronation Street as much as I do?