A gorgeous moving story of the Christmas truce during World War I, when both sides left the trenches, sang carols together, exchanged gifts, shook hands, and then went back to killing each other.

J. Patrick Lewis and Gary Kelley, Creative Publications, ©2011, 978-1-56846-220-2

World War I Songs
Click here, World War One Music and Songs. for a really good site with most of the songs from WWI.  Click here,  for a really good film portraying the moment shown in this book when the Germans sang Stille Nacht and the war stopped. Terrific to show the students.

Other songs of World War I are sung on this website as well. This site is a great resource.

In Flanders Fields
Canadian John McRae wrote In Flanders Fields. This is a great poem to memorize because it is perhaps the most quoted poem of the war, it is Canadian, and it is a good sample to show how easy it is to memorize a poem. It’s very moving, very stirring.

Tips for Memorizing Effectively

• Consider its meaning and structure – you should see it like a movie.
• What is its shape? How many lines? How does it rhyme?
• Create physical movements – act it out.
• Memorize each part separately.
• Involve your senses – write it, shout it, cry it, laugh it,hear it.
• Practise starts AFTER you learn it. Repeat at intervals, up to 11 times.

For 8 creative writing ideas, click And the Soldiers Sang to download.