This year we celebrated Anzac Day a bit
differently. Usually we make posies for the
school children to lay at the War Memorial by
the RSA.
We were unable to get them there this time, so
we tried a new idea, which turned out to be
amazing.
It all began Tuesday afternoon when a re-
source pack arrived in the post from the MOE
talking about setting up a small Field of
Remembrance. With the
pack were some small
crosses that we could make,
and photos of people who had
been in the war.
Fields of Remembrance for Early Childhood Centres
The Fields of Remembrance Trust and the Ministry of Education have formed a partnership to support all early learning services in commemorating the sacrifice of our veterans during World War 1 (WW1). Across the country early learning centres (Kindergartens, Playcentres, Kōhanga reo, and Day-care centres) will be sent a WW1 Commemoration Package, including three small white crosses to com-memorate the men and women who died serving New Zealand during WW1. The commemoration packages aim to inform and inspire younger generations. Activities: Tell their Stories :
9/523 SGT. R.C. TRAVIS VC, DM, MM, CdG 22/125 S/NURSE N.M. HILDYARD
10/127 2/LT. T.M.P. GRACE MID
Invite a soldier or an old soldier to visit - contact your nearest RSA or DEFENCE Base.
Visit a WW1 Memorial near you.
Contact a school near you for information on their WW1 ceremonies.
Visit Museums to view their WW1 exhibitions.
Make thumb-print poppies with paint.
Bake ANZAC biscuits.
Make medals and talk about how and why people get medals.
talk to families and whanau - do they have stories?
Phyllis said this was great, but did not know
how we could build a Field of Remembrance in
3 days.
Rachel smiled and said, 'What about our new
garden that the teachers made with the
children?’
It was agreed
On Wednesday afternoon we made some
crosses of our own as part of our Bible time.
Realising it would be a good learning
experience we took the children down to the com-
puter room for them to choose and print out
their own photos of the people who went to war to
look after us.
The children came back with shiny eyes and
proudly holding the photographs they
had chosen to put on their crosses.
As we had some wood that was just the right
size we decided to use it to make our individual
crosses. Phyllis started making the crosses.
Bella was a great help with her creative use of
cellotape.
What fun we all had gluing the photos the chil-
dren had chosen on to the crosses, ready for our
Remembrance Walk on Friday.
Earlier in the week we made a request for
flowers to make posies. Our parents were very
kind and helped us with this. The children loved
making the posies and some made two, one for
the Kindy garden and one for their family.
Thursday afternoon came and Kindy invited
Carolyn, and Lauren, from Pioneers to come
with, Brooklyn, Mykah, Lily and Manaia to
join us. Phyllis talked to the children about
where we were going and thanked everyone for
taking part.
Rachel composed a cool song for the occasion
which she sang as we gathered at the garden.
‘Anzac Day, Anzac Day, Its our special time to
pray, For the men and women
who fought the war, Special hugs and prayers for sure.’
Phyllis and Rachel handed out the crosses and
posies that the children had made. We all got to
hold something.
When we got there the children took turns
Waiting patiently while each child put their
gifts in the garden.
The teachers said later on, how very respectful,
interested and kind the Kindergarten children
and Pioneers children had been.
Later in the afternoon when the
parents came to pick up their children,
they took them round to proudly show
them where they had put the crosses and posies.
Thank you to the Fields of Remembrance
Trust and Ministry of Education for
partnering together to provide this amazing
recourse to focus on ECE Services and
Kohanga Reo. It was just right for our
pre-school age group.
We wanted to send you a copy of our book to
say thank you. What a great experience
for our children.