We Are Lucky

Soldiers fought because they believed that they were helping to keep our country free, safe and a good place to live.

Anzac Service at St Albans

On Friday we had a service to commemorate the New Zealand and Australian soldiers who died at war. The service began with us singing the National Anthem as the flag was raised. It looked beautiful fluttering against the clearing sky. Chris Wallace then read a speech written by the Returned Servicemen Association about the landings and battles at Gallipoli. It was sad and scary to think about what that must have been like. Next the children who had medals, like Sophie came to the front. There was also a real "old kit bag" for us to look at. We sang Pack Up Your Troubles as we thought about what it must have been like to pack up and go to war.

Isobel recited the poem about poppies and why we have them and the choir sang a song version of the famous poem In Flanders Fields. Next we had a story from Mr Williams about prisoners of war and a spoon. It made us remember that not only the soldiers were effected by the horrors of war.

Bella and Nico read aloud the names of men who had gone to St Albans as boys who had died at war and it seemed so terrible that the list was so long. We stood in silence as Angus played the Last Post on his trumpet and Mr Williams recited the Ode of Remembrance.

Ava took the cross for Sergeant Cox and it was laid with the others in a grid. When all the crosses had been laid we went back to Room 17 and had an Anzac biscuit and remembered how lucky we are to live in a country not ravaged by war and fear.

Sergeant Cox

Birthdate: 11 June 1885

If you would like to read more about our soldier who was a farmer before he went to war you can go to the Auckland Museum online Cenotaph.

This is a photograph of the memorial for him and other soldiers in Belgium.

You can find a map of where this is at the NZ Wargraves Project website.

Our Soldier

This is the cross that we will present on Friday at the ANZAC service. We know that Sergeant Cox died in action on the 4th of October in 1917. Can you find out any more about him tonight?

You did beautiful singing of Pack Up Your Troubles today, keep up the great practice!

Thanks to William who brought along a photo of his great grandfather whose middle name was Anzac. We also enjoyed hearing the story of Will's great grandfather who fought at Gallipoli and survived.

It was sad to discover that two of Matilda's ancestors, Rollo and George died in WWI.
Leticia's nan has made a very interesting scrapbook about her family's war stories. We are looking forward to spending some time exploring that tomorrow.

ANZAC News

We have begun our Inquiry about ANZAC this week. Yesterday you made some fabulous poppies. The poppy is the symbol of war remembrance. We wrote some questions to talk about at home:

What should we remember?
Why should we remember?
Who should we remember?

Today Ava brought along a photo of her grandfather who fought in World War II, and his medals. She will wear the medals at the dawn service this weekend.

At our ANZAC service on Friday we will all sing the song Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kitbag. You have the words stuck in your home learning book or your poetry book and can practice it with this youtube clip.

It was fascinating to learn about Tory the tortoise who is the last living relic of WWI. The link to that video clip is on the Extra Reading Links page above.