Anzac Day Activities for Kids

Anzac Day is basically the Australian and New Zealand equivalent of Memorial Day or Remembrance Day. Anzac stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps, and it commemorates in particular the conflict at Gallipoli in World War I, though it’s generally a way to honor all those who have died in service to the country.

While it’s a heavy thing to talk to kids about, it’s important for them to know the meaning of these important holidays and to learn more about them.

KidsKonnect has some good facts about the day and printable worksheets about the historical figures involved, what Anzac means and the flags of the different countries that mark Anzac Day.

Twinkl.au has a printable Anzac Day medal worksheet so kids can design their own memorial. They also have a printable silhouette craft and coloring pages including soldiers, poppies, wreaths and more. (These require a free account to download.)

Foundation into First talks about how to talk about Anzac Day with younger kids, and they have a set of Anzac Day activities for grades 1-3 on Teachers Pay Teachers.

A Few Small Adventures has a great collection of picture books about Gallipoli, World War I and Anzac Day to read with kids. Top Teaching Tasks has some great ideas for older kids such as researching war memorials, finding a soldier and taking a virtual tour of Gallipoli.

Poppies are a well-known decoration used for remembrance, and kids can make poppy crafts such as this bottle cap field of poppies from Danya Banya or some of these crafts done by Happy Hooligans. I love the cupcake liner poppy, which is shown here.

If you have access to a kitchen or are willing to bake at home you can also make Anzac biscuits, which are said to have been made by the soldiers’ wives because they could stay fresh for a really long time while they were away from home. Get a recipe from Recipe Tin Eats.

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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