Le 11 Novembre - jour de l'armistice 2011

[Jo Rhys-Jones]

 Here is a last minute round-up of resources that link very nicely with Armistice day - bearing in mind that soldiers of many nationalities have lost and still continue to lose their lives daily...

• Wikipedia has a comprehensive definition of Armistice day for your class to explore.
• Val Thornber from Grow-Story-Grow.com has very kindly indeed made available a free animated story in English, French and German about the First World War and the Armistice. You can view it by logging in here with the username: remembrance and the password: day122 Then choose 'English' as the language you would like to learn and 'none' for the language you would like the story to be translated into.
• For the very young, or just a lighter touch, you might want to make use of this printout poppy from teteamodeler.com that you could scribble some numbers and a key on in the corner to make into a target-language colour-by-numbers activity.
• In Flanders Fields is a multilingual museum site in Dutch, French and English
• Why not listen to the 'Gentil Coquelicot' song (mp3 version) or print out the lyrics and notation if you are musically inclined?
• For Ks1 & KS2 Boowa and Kwala have a little poppy song.
• I found this British Army blogpost inspirational too - a soldier recounts in English how learning a few polite words of the local language go a long way
• Here are some simple instructions in French from Canadian website Anciens Combattants to make a poppy wreath using cut-outs of childrens hands.
• In Germany - the 11th November also marks the start of Lanternenfest or St Martins Day and will celebrate by making lanterns for processions.

[Lisa Stevens]

Quite odd being in Switzerland - not a poppy in sight!  So thanks Jo - I think it's important to remember even if it's not celebrated here.

Lisaxx

[Jo Rhys-Jones]

Clare Seccombe's podcast about Armistice day in France is on http://mflsunderland-primary.podomatic.com/entry/2010-10-15T04_58_56-07_00