WORLD WAR ONE

I know it's a bit late to be looking at WW1 as the hundredth anniversary of it beginning was last year but it will always be relevant.

A bit of personal history first. A couple of years ago my wife bought me a Death Penny for my birthday. It was awarded to a chap from Tyneside, where I was born, who died on my birthday in 1918. It made me cry. This year, for my birthday, she bought me a "Fumsup"* and, for Christmas, the "Oh! What a lovely War" DVD and a 3CD boxed set of WW1 songs.

My Fumsup present

Just before Christmas, when I'd been doing Lego WeDo in a school, my friend asked me to put something together to act as a backdrop to her children singing "All Together Now" by The Farm. I'd never realised that this "catchy" song was about the famous Christmas no-man's land meetings. I made her a PowerPoint presentation incorporating images from "The Best Christmas Present" by Carol Anne Duffy & Michael Morpurgo (Egmont) and some animated gifs (snow and poppies).

So, to another school this week where they're just finishing off their work on WW1 and I've encouraged them to show their knowledge and understanding using PowerPoint but trying to incorporate something of themselves, their feelings. To get across the message I pointed them to the graphic novels of Pat Mills & Joe Colquhoun (Charley's War - 10 vols, Titan Books) and the wonderful 32 page panorama produced by Joe Sacco covering the whole of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, The Great War. I played then Poppy Day by Siouxsie & the Banshees & My Youngest Son Came Home Today by Mary Black. We also looked at war propaganda using cartoons from the book "World War 1 in Cartoons" by Mark Bryant (Octopus Books (2006)).

Another book to look out for is the Costa Book Award Winner "Five Children on the Western Front" by Kate Saunders (Faber)**

We all respond to tasks we're given with different interest and enthusiasm, so I'm really anxious to experience what they produce.


*http://blog.maryevans.com/2014/02/fumsup-a-first-world-war-lucky-mascot.html
**http://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/book/10321/Five-Children-on-the-Western-Front-by-Kate-Saunders.html