Digital Mysteries: Remembrance Day is an engaging activity which helps children develop understanding of why the day occurs.
Students age 7-11 are invited to work in pairs to explore why a young girl called Sarah is attending a remembrance service. Through this story-based approach, they learn the reasons behind the services, facts associated with the world wars and also some of the symbols related to Remembrance Day and how they are used.
The children are introduced to these topics through slips of information with engaging illustrations. There are three difficulty levels to choose from, and this determines how many slips the students are given. (Change this in the settings.) On Easy, there are 10 slips, Medium there are 20 and Hard there are 24.
There are several themes running through the story/mystery, but they are included in a relatable way. These include a few facts on the World Wars, information that Sarahs grandad was involved, plus that her father is now in the army. Sarah also goes to a local club who are involved in the Remembrance Day service and is covering the topic at school.
Users move through an easy-to-follow, three stage process – they must first read through the slips, organise them into groups, then move to the final stage where they lay out the slips in a chain and use sticky tapes and notes to help make sense of everything. Although the question is open-ended, students learn lots of useful information along the way, all while developing key skills of collaboration and problem-solving.
Following this process, students can then go through the Reflection Stage. This allows them to play back what they have done, discuss their choices and share with others what they thought during the process and whether after reflection, they still think the same. This can be done alone, in their groups, with their teacher or as a whole class. A PDF report is also generated as a summary of the session, and is available to print or share.
Some specific learning goals of this mystery are:
- That commemorations are linked to specific events in the past which really happened
- When World War One and Armistice Day occurred.
- Why specific symbols are associated with commemorations.
- That some important events are commemorated by people in Britain and the wider world.
How can I try other mysteries?
At the bottom of the app details tab, tap ‘Developer Apps’ to view our current range. There are apps for computing, history, geography, maths, science, citizenship and two bundles: Shakespeare and primary computing.