Historica Canada Education Portal

This toolkit has been created to help educate students about Remembrance Day. It introduces students to the importance of remembrance and provides guidance in planning a Remembrance Day event, whether in class or virtually. The central piece of the event is the participation of a Memory Project speaker. This toolkit encourages students and the public to reflect on what remembrance means to them, the history behind November 11, and the legacies of past wars and conflicts. It also provides...

The Memory Project Visit Organizers: How to complete a speaking engagement via video call

The Host a Speaker Kit is designed to help educators and students deepen their understanding of military history and develop thoughtful questions for a Memory Project speaker.

Students should:
- Know that democracy depends on the participation of the citizens
- Participate appropriately and effectively in groups
- Research for specific information
- Demonstrate an attitude of acceptance of diverse values
- Read, view and listen effectively to gather ideas and information
- Classify and present pertinent information in logical order.

Students should be able to :
- Present ideas clearly and at a rate that enables others to follow
- Explain personal viewpoint clearly
-...

The teacher will ask the students to research how different groups of Canadians were affected by Canada’s participation in the Second World War. Students will then create a journal that follows the life of a fictitious Canadian before, during and after the war. Although the students will be creating a piece of fiction, the journals they write must be historically accurate and make reference to historical events. The teacher will assign, or allow students to choose, their character...

Aboriginal people sacrificed much during the two World Wars, both at home and in Europe, all the while they weren’t considered “people” in the eyes of Canadian law. Students will explore the issues facing Aboriginal people during the Great War and the Second World War and collaborate to create a PowerPoint or PhotoStory presentation for the school Remembrance Day Assembly.

It is expected that the student will:

- apply critical thinking (including questioning, comparing,...

Procedures:

This presentation would be on Remembrance Day.

PREPARATION LEADING TO THE PERFORMANCE:

1. Each of five students researches an individual who died in action in Europe and whose body is buried in a Commonwealth War Cemetery.

2. Each student prepares a written and illustrated presentation on his/her chosen individual who was lost in action in Europe. They will use PowerPoint for the illustration, and a written document to be read at the assembly while the PowerPoint is being...

This lesson is based on viewing the Heritage Minute, "Valour Road." By coincidence, 3 of the 69 Canadian men who were awarded the Victoria Cross in the First World War had grown up on the same street in Winnipeg. This street was renamed Valour Road in their honour.

The "Valour Road" Heritage Minute is a good starting place for students to learn about the horrors of war and consider the great personal sacrifices that soldiers made.

By coming up with their own film treatments and...

Start this activity by introducing your students to Canadian writer John McCrae with the Heritage Minute about his poem "In Flanders Field" and to the Unknown Soldier by reading "Waiting in Line" from Chicken Soup for the Canadian Soul (text below).

"Waiting in Line"

This lesson plan is based on viewing the Footprints videos for Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Father David Bauer, Bobby Hull,Wayne Gretzky, and The Forum. Throughout hockey's history, though they are not presented in the Footprints, francophone players like Guy Lafleur, Mario Lemieux, Raymond Bourque, Jacques Lemaire, and Patrick Roy also made a significant contribution to the sport. Parents still watch their children skate around cold arenas before the sun is up and backyard rinks remain...