Remembrance Day Comprehension

A Remembrance Day comprehension for Year 5 and Year 6: why we wear a poppy, the Armistice and the poem In Flanders Fields.

A calm, factual text about the history of Remembrance (the Armistice, the two-minute silence, the Cenotaph, the Unknown Warrior and the poppy), plus a study of “In Flanders Fields”, discussion prompts and full answers. Print-ready PDF, 9 pages.

Explain why we wear a poppy with a respectful, accurate reading pack for Upper KS2.

What’s included (9-page A4 PDF):

• Teacher notes with a sensitivity note (some pupils have family in the armed forces or have experienced conflict)
• “Why We Wear a Poppy”: about 600 words covering the First World War (including soldiers from India, the Caribbean and across the Empire), the Armistice at 11am on 11th November 1918, the first two-minute silence in 1919, the Cenotaph and the Unknown Warrior (1920), Moina Michael, Anna Guérin, the first Poppy Appeal (1921), and Remembrance today (red, white and purple poppies)
• 12 comprehension questions with marks: retrieval, vocabulary, inference, sequencing, true/false and explanation
• The full text of “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae (1915, public domain), background notes and 7 poem questions (speaker, imagery, rhyme, the “torch” metaphor, repetition)
• “Talk and reflect”: 8 open discussion prompts and a written reflection for a class display
• Answers and marking guidance

Name/date line on pupil pages. British English spelling. Clear, dyslexia-friendly font.

This resource was created with AI assistance (Claude), then fact-checked and proofread in a separate review pass.