Remembrance Day Challenge Kit
Transform Remembrance Day into a meaningful experience by equipping your students to create acts of remembering and commemoration that go beyond symbolism that reflect a deeper understanding of war, conflict and peace. This resource was created in 2022 with updates since.
“The students’ unanimous feedback identified that this project challenged them to think much more broadly and deeply than any other they’d encountered. From the start my class was very invested, and they commented about how it showed through their work…they’re also more confident in themselves because they know they’ve been a part of something great.”
- Michael Primarano, Veteran and Middle School Teacher
Making Remembrance Day Meaningful
The schools of today are much different from those of 1919, when the first formal Armistice Day was marked in Canada; yet the way in which we commemorate it is largely unchanged. The Remembrance Day Challenge Kit gives students in Grades 5-12 the opportunity to develop deeper understandings of what Remembrance Day can be.
In this Challenge Kit we ask students to:
Expand the experiences we honour and remember
Deepen our learning to add complexity to those experiences
Be historically accurate in our remembering
Together, students reimagine how we honour all who served and continue to serve in the Canadian Armed Forces; including Black, Indigenous, women, 2SLBGTQ+ soldiers, veterans and labourers, often forgotten and excluded in traditional remembrance. Remembrance Day is an important opportunity to engage with student voice and action.
“We have to be honest about our own histories and we have to remember the difficult histories… there are many histories in our country that aren’t well-known, that are often hidden, and yet are incredibly important.”
- Sergeant Nina Usherwood, Canadian Forces Decoration (retired)
This project was generously funded by Veterans Affairs Canada
Access this Challenge Kit
This Challenge Kit includes:
Facilitator Notebook
Letter to Students
Teacher Slide Deck
Capture Your Thinking Handout
And inquiry-based activities to ignite curiosity
There are 4 sets of resources with this Kit. Mix and match the resources to engage students in deep thinking and problem solving.
1. Inquiry-Based Activities (in ZIP file)
9 lessons cover the topics of: the No 2 Construction Battalion, Canada’s the first and largest all-Black military unit in Canadian history, and LGBTQ+ Service Members and Veterans, Women and Allies. Woven in are the themes of this challenge kit, and explorations of government apologies, peace, identity, and ways of remembering. Activity include:
What is remembering?
2SLGBTQ+ Service Members Discovered in WWII
Women, War & Service
Deepening our understanding of peace
Historical Accuracy and building Criticality
Our Collective Responsibility
2. Videos for Educators →
A short series to spark meaningful conversations with adults on Remembrance Day practice.
Jamea Zuberi: Principal and community activist
Ian Duncan: Historian, Author and High School History Teacher
Spencer Alexander: former Curator, Buxton National Historic Site
3. Documentary Series →
This three-part documentary series follows Spencer Alexander, former Curator of the Buxton National Historic Site & Museum.
Video 1: Identity, oral history and understanding - Spencer speaks to the traditions of his ancestors from Six Nation of the Grand River and Underground Railroad refugees who settled in Ontario.
Video 2: Expanding how and who we remember | This video captures the story of Spencer’s grandfather advocacy for “the coloured people of Canada” who wrote a letter, currently in the Ontario Archives, to First World War Minister of Defence Sam Hughes requesting information for why they could not enlist.
Video 3: Deepening our understanding of history and the stories we tell | The third video captures the story of his father’s service and landing at Juno Beach on D-Day in the Second World War, bringing light to the realities of Indigenous service members.
4. Interview Series →
These interviews offer real perspectives on service, identity, and what remembrance, conflict and peace mean to them.
Dominic Sabotka: Corporal
Eleanor Taylor: Manager, Community Engagement and Advocacy for True Patriot Love Foundation
Kim Bernhardt: retired Adjudicator. Her father, Wilson O. Brooks, was one of the first Blacks in the Canadian Air Force and he served in #415 Squadron, R.C.A.F. #6 Bomber Command.
Lieutenant-Colonel / Lieutenante-colonelle A. Melissa (Mel) Reyes
Natalie Marie Forcier: MCpl (retired)
Sergeant Nina Usherwood: Canadian Forces Decoration (retired).
Paul Smith: Commanding Officer
A Peek Inside
Ceremonies and practices hold meaning when the people participating bring meaning to them. The Remembrance Day Challenge Kit helps students move beyond symbolic gestures to design acts of commemoration that are personal, authentic, and community-connected.
Students’ guiding challenge is:
How might we make Remembrance Day meaningful to our school community?
Curriculum-Connected Activity Plans
Challenge Kit designed by
Michael Alex
Michael Alex is a Teacher Coach with I-Think and a former high school teacher with a quarter century of classroom experience and instructional leadership, primarily in the public alternative system. Today he’s a freelance learning strategist at Inside Out Learning working through a mindfulness lens to support teens inside and out of traditional learning environments.
Activities designed by:
Ian Duncan, LGBTQ+ and Women Series
Ian Duncan teaches high school history in Ontario, working hard to create a classroom where historical narratives are questioned, inclusive, and co-created by new generations of young people. Charged with critical thinking, fuelled by dialogue and, amplified by curiosity, his students engage in inquiry that truly reaches into the past. He lives proudly with his husband and son in Toronto, is always learning new stories from the past, and also writes picture books found in your local library and bookshop.
Tamara Phillips, No 2 Construction Battalion Series
Tamara Phillips is an Instructional Program Lead with the Halton District School Board, specializing in secondary literacy, curriculum, and professional learning. She has over 20 years of experience as an English teacher, consultant, and system leader, with a focus on evidence-based literacy instruction, destreaming, and asset-based assessment practices. Tamara designs professional development that centres student voice, empowers teachers to engage in a pedagogy of voice, and builds cross-curricular connections rooted in upholding Indigenous and human rights. Tamara's passion for teaching and learning has grown alongside her journey as a mother. She is passionate about bringing lesser-told stories into the "nooks and crannies" of public education with joy and love.
