Secondary Activities

1. Contact to loved ones at home was very important to the soldiers in the trenches. For many soldiers writing and receiving letters is what kept them fighting to survive.

Pretend you are a soldier fighting in a war. You are thousands of miles away from your loved ones and you are unsure of when/if you’ll see them again. Write a letter home to a parent or girlfriend. Describe the environment in which you write the letter and also your feelings about the situation.

Or

Pretend you are a loved one at home waiting to hear from your son, husband, or boyfriend. Write a letter to him describing your situation at home without him.

2. There is no doubt that a soldier sees and experiences many horrific things during a war and these experiences can evoke many different emotions for the soldiers. Soldiers such as W.N. Hodgson (see poems under additional information on website) and John McCrae chose to express what they saw and how they felt using poetry.

Choose a form of poetry and write about the sort of things you might see/experience and how you might feel about your situation.