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The Classroom supports teachers and students of various curriculum levels in their study of Anzac Day. These activities and teaching ideas can be used as they are or adapted to suit the particular needs of your classes.
The Gallipoli campaign of 1915 remains a landmark event in New Zealand history. Although it was a grievous failure for the Allies and did not have a significant impact on the war's outcome, the campaign fostered an emerging New Zealand identity, and its effects continue to resonate.
The Anzac Day ceremony of 25 April is a form of military funeral and follows a particular pattern. The day's ceremonies have two major parts: one at dawn and another, more public event, later in the morning.
The word Anzac is part of the culture of New Zealanders and Australians. The word conjures up a shared heritage of two nations, but it also has a specific meaning, dating from December 1914.
Anzac Day was made a half-day holiday in 1916, and the pattern of the day's events that occur now began at that time.

Anzac Day became a public holiday and took on new meaning in a time of peace. It became a time to express sorrow, not glorify war, and was a sacred day that had a secular tone.

Do a quiz to find out what students know about Anzac Day
The British attack on the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915 depended on careful timing and planning. Things went wrong before troops even landed.
Anzac Day came to have a wider focus and the commemorations became more popular in the years after the Second World War.
A selection of key New Zealand events from 1921
Each generation of New Zealanders redefines Anzac Day to suit the mood of the times, but the last 40 years have been a time of much redefinition.
The dawn service at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, 25 April 1986. The dawn service was introduced to New Zealand in 1939 by Australian veterans who had attended a similar service in Sydney the previous year.
A selection of biographies of people who served at Gallipoli
This wreath was made by the Waitoa Brownies, Te Aroha, in 1986. The text reads 'In memory of all the people who have died in all the wars.'
This list of 147 fatalities of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) was collated from Commonwealth War Graves Commission records. The exact date of death cannot be verified for 23 of those listed.
This is the notice in the New Zealand Gazette that declared Anzac Day a half-holiday.
The red poppy has become a symbol of war remembrance the world over. In many countries it  is worn around Armistice Day (11 November), but in New Zealand it is most commonly seen around Anzac Day, 25 April.
New Zealand soldiers at Sling Camp, England, created this cover for a publication in 1916.
Classroom activities about Anzac Day and Gallipoli